Could someone please define the term "Half Shaft" for me.

What all does it include?

Thank you.

 

the half shaft for an evo are the shafts that you have to remove from the transmission to remove the t case. Basically on my 03 eclipse has a fwd transaxle, and the axles have stubs that install into the transmission, and mesh with the diff in the tranny.

On the evo, since you're transferring power to the rear via a t case, you have to have an easy way to disconnect the t case from the transmission. That is where the half shaft comes in. The long half shaft which you have to remove from the drivers side axle with a slide hammer goes thru the transmission and meshes with the tcase lsd. and protrudes out on the drivers side, for the axle to slide onto. I hope this makes since as I just totally lost what I was going to type out.............................. dang cold medicine

 

What you are describing is the intermediate shaft, not the half shaft

 

i have always called them the half shafts so thats news to me.
The only other thing I could think of that would be called that are axles. because 1 only takes up half of the cars width, but thats a little far out i think...

 

Here's the problem....

If you walk into ANY parts store, or talk to ANY mechanic, and you talk about half shafts, they give you everything between the transmission (in our case transfer case) and the wheel.

Meaning (per side) both CV joints, the inner and outer stubs, and the CV intermediate shaft...

Half shafts are also called "CV axle shafts"

Google "What is a half shaft" and you will see what I mean.

I paid a member here for Both half shafts, and he only sent me only the two CV intermediate shafts.

Here's the first definition as pulled up from Google. It's also from Tom and Ray Magliozi AKA Click and Clack, The tappet brothers from car talk....

 

yea, I would say the "half shaft" is the cv axle assembly, or axle, or cv half shaft. The shaft the goes through the trans and into the tcase is an intermediate shaft. Just like the short shaft that can be removed from the passenger side of the tcase that drives the passenger side axle...

 

i was always under the impression a half shaft was an old school cv axle... before they were redesigned to use cv joints and still used a u joint... i think they were mostly for trucks... its something i was told and just believed... but when someone calls cv axles half shafts i dont argue...

a quick google tells me jag's ran them in the rear axles aswell... who knew


and the detmaso pantera as well

 

anything with independant suspension on a driven wheel uses a half shaft. It allows the suspension to articulate without changing the camber. The alternative is a "solid axle" which has no articulation in it.

It seems on this site that people call Half Shafts as "Axles".... and that's where the confusion lies, when Half Shaft is the correct terminology in the rest of the automotive industry...

Here's a link from Rock Auto with a picture, and "CV HALF SHAFT" listed.