This winter I found a JDM rear differential with 4.11 gearing and a SureTrac LSD like I've been looking for, and got it installed in the rear of my '88 XT trail runner. Obviously the new differential is the newer style with "innie" axle cups, as opposed to my original "outtie" stub axles. I found a pair of new style CV cups that fit into the diff, and rebuilt them with my 23 spline axles and original XT outer joints.
I'm pretty sure this is a well-known procedure for using modern differentials with ea82 suspension, but the issue I'm having is the new CV cups are roughly half an inch shorter than my old ones. Seems like the old ones had an extension where the roll pin went through, which is no longer necessary on the new style. Anyway, the new frankenaxles are just barely long enough (I can jack the car up so that one or both rear wheels is off the ground and neither joint binds up), but twice now I've been on the trail and bounced/twisted something to the point where the CV joint (the inner DOJ) has separated.
So my question is for those who are familiar with this mod, did you see similar issues? Is there a different axle option that would give me that 1/2" back?
Is cutting and sleeving the axles an option?