Strange Nadella Half-Shafts?

[Fishcop]

More 'difference' in my newly acquired 68 S targa...

These half-shafts are quite different to my coupe's. Can anybody ID them for me? I believe the diff is a limited slip unit too.

[Jon B]

John,

These appear to be versions of Porsche's racing axles, referred to as "hollow", "tubular" or "fat Nadellas". They're similar to axles run on late 904's through 910's. They were optional for early 911 racecars . There was debate in the day whether these were too stiff, compared to standard Nadellas, and transmitted excessive shock to U-joints and transmissions. If genuine/unaltered, they're very valuable for period-correct racing cars.

Jon B.

[kouwenhoven]

Could be but these look a lot like the axles on this American 4x4. Apparantly there were a lot of universal Nadella axles built for other brands. i hope Jon B. is right though...

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/lofiver...hp?t64472.html

Erik

[Jon B]

Erik,

You may be right. I did say "appear to be" and "if genuine", but could be something grafted to a Nadella flange and stub axle. If those are welds, not dirt & grease on the Nadella coupling, then certainly not "genuine/unaltered"...

Jon B.

[Fishcop]

Thanks Jon and Erik. There is nothing special about this car and it has no racing history, so I suspect the shafts are a 'made-up' piece. I'll clean them up properly to check for welds.

Cheers
John

[Harvey Weidman]

Those are the converted axles that were used to replace the stock nadellas. A few different shops made them. They used standard u joints and slip from a drive shaft. We stocked them and our shop put on quite a few sets. I still believe that are a very good replacement for the nadellas. They don't seem to explode like the stock nadellas do and joints are easy to replace.
BTW the racing axles still have the funny u joint with the expander that the standard axle has...they are tubular instead of solid.
H

[Fishcop]

Thanks for the confirmation Harvey. Although pretty heavy, they seem very robust!

Cheers
John