So it popped out WITH the Sport shaft installed? That's bad news. I was planning on running that setup in the very near future.

No...the regular Sidekick axle popped out.  Today, I had the Sidekick Sport shaft installed.  It appears, at best, to be about an inch longer than the 1.6L Sidekick shaft.  I hope that'll stay in.  If not, I'm going to need to seriously consider putting the front sway bar back on to help limit travel, or consider the hybrid shaft.  Wish me luck! 

My sport shaft never popped out of mine and it went through some hard use

My sport shaft never popped out of mine and it went through some hard use

Just curious....do you have diff drop brackets installed?  Also, are you running your GV without the front swaybar.  I think the combination of the CALMINI kit and the lack of a swaybar is giving me a lot of travel in the front.  It would really suck if this Sidekick Sport shaft pops out.  :'(

as good as that elusive and mythical hybrid shaft

Not mythical.  There's one in my GV.  Elusive?  Well, you might be right there.  Seems like someone could make a buck or two making these hyb shafts.  At the same time, I thought I'd sell the extra 26 spline inner shafts as they are hard to find, but no bids on Ebay.

If you get the right parts, they go together like PB & J.

Here's a pic of what the passenger side looked like right after the 1.6L Kick axle popped out.  Fortunately, I only lost a couple of teaspoons of gear oil.  Now I have the longer 1.8L axle in......hopefully it'll be a permanent solution!

If you get the right parts, they go together like PB & J.

I'll second the PB & J! I followed your original instructions and it went great.  Trail Tough had all the parts I needed.  Building the hybrid shaft only took a few minutes and was much easier than I would have thought after I found the ring clip that needed to come out (was hidden in CV grease).

Three years (or there about) later I do have a light grinding noise coming from inside by the passenger side hub area when in 4WD - I'm positive it has nothing to do with the conversion though.  It happens once per rotation of the shaft (not constant).  Need to investigate that soon.

I recently went through the same mod in my own GV.  The Sidekick Sport axle works  if you have the gearing from the 96,97,98 Japan Kicks with the 28 spline, BUT also you can make the hybrid shaft for using the older 5.12s from 89-94 (26 spline) in the front of the GV because the inner CV is the same size as the earlier models, and the cups (outer piece) of the CV are the same size whereas the GV pieces are bigger. The sport axle is the same length as the GV shaft too, so it fits right in, and allows the use of the older more common gears.  I did a write up in the forum section Performance/modify.  Check it out.

28 spline... did you mean 22 spline?  I wasn't "tracking" on any of these trucks running 28 spline axles or flanges.