I am in the middle of a project that involves re-gearing my GV to the 5.125 gears from a sidekick, and have been using this forum and the internet in general to find out what I need to do the job and what works.
TO START--the post on this forum that you need gears from a 96,97,98 Japan made sidekick works, but they are hard to find and expensive. BUT--you don't need to make a hybrid axle! The GV inside CV is the same spline as the new gears you are installing, so why change? You can re-use the factory axle!. They should be the same 28 spline, that is the reason for using these gears in the first place!
HOWEVER-- I found some local guys who've done this before, and you can use the gears from 89-94 sidekicks, pretty much any sidekick, but this is where you need to build the hybrid axle for the passenger side. You need the inside CV stub BELL piece of the CV (the outer Piece-usually green) from the donor vehicle you got your gears from, that will be 26 spline. That is why ideally you would want the gears from the post since you would retain the stronger 28 spline shafts, but the 26 spline will work. Now, the GV shaft is to big for this CV to fit onto, its physically bigger, the Bell and the Race inside, even the ball bearings are bigger, so what you need to find is the axle from a'98 sidekick sport. The axle on it has the 28 spline inside CV, but the Bell is physically smaller,and it has the added bonus of being the same length as the GV shaft which is about 1/2" longer than the sidekick shafts. So what you need to do is you undo the boot, remove the thin retaining ring, pull the 28 spline bell off, leaving the race and ball bearings in place. Slide on the Bell from your donor CV that has the 26 spline to match your gears, replace the retaining ring and the boot, and you have your shaft! Much easier to find these parts, and only a little more work to fit them. Depending on where you are, cheaper too since they are more common.
Note: This shaft will be your weak link in the system. Since it is smaller than the GV shaft on the other side, it will tend to break more easily. The Sidekick Sport shafts can be gotten NEW for $150 CDN, or a wreckers for $75, so they are not expensive to replace. The 26 spline inner bell is so common its not even funny.
Another Note: The axle seals on the Grand Vitara are the same part number as the sidekick, they are all machined the same, so since you have all this apart anyway, now would be a good time to change the oil seals. Just order the factory part for the Grand Vitara. The sealing surface is the same on all of them!
I will add pics soon to illustrate this.
Happy Gear Swaps!
