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Now that my axle was officially condemned by the place I took it to, and I’ve hopefully a new tube on the way, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to chop up the old axle to have a look at it. When originally trying to take the trailing arm shafts out, the shafts were firmly jammed in the tube, and looked like the bearings had collapsed. In desperation I took it to a local guy who has built a few axles in the past. He had a hydraulic ram to pull the shafts out ( after burning a hole in the shaft), but even then they wouldn’t budge (popped a seal in his ram). So today i invested 1 cutting disc and found this: I thought I was cutting the bearing out of one side, but then I realised that this tube must have been sleeved in the past: The other side didn’t seem to have this. Its inner bearing was in decent condition, could read MADE IN FRANCE and the part number on it: But the outer was tatties: This was off a 1 owner, 107,000 mile car. I’m a bit surprised the tube was sleeved but given the corrosion seen here maybe i shouldn’t be. The corrosion seemed to get by to the outer bearing, but the inners seem pretty rust-free. Anyway thought I’d share!

Right then here's how the story goes. Got a 306 gti6 rear axle in my garage which is a mates but he will sell it to me for a decent price as he sold his 306 so now has no need for it. So I've done a little search and have a few questions. First up, as the 306 beam is quite a bit wider than my 205 beam which companies can do a chop and weld my torsion bars and anti roll bar as they have to take quite a lot of stress to cope with so will need a decent job on them, also who has had this done with or with out success? Or what are people opinions on it? Secondly, are the trailing arms a direct fit to use my current 1.9 gti disc brake set up? Thirdly, the beam also comes with Koni shocks which are set for a fast road 306 and also the weight of it, would these be better than bilsteins (b6 I think) that are on it? Thanks Jakey Edit to add: for reference it's track car only