I have a '93 Accord EX that I'm converting to 5-lug. I'm doing it in a way that's a little unconventional to those of us who own '90-'97 Accords or '97-'99 CLs. I'm using the front knuckles from a '96-'98 3.2TL. It mounts the brake caliper in a trailing fashion and I figured it would be the only correct way to use my 2-piston Legend calipers given their bleeder orientation. I know that there are workarounds for accommodating these but I was just trying to be different and come up with an "OEM" solution.

The Good:
Lower ball joints are the same as the CB7, the outer tie rods mount the same (not the case for those who use BB6 knuckles) and the upper control arms and ball joints are the same. The only thing left is the axles.

Issues:
The axles are both 28-spline, I believe. However, I believe the inner diameter to be ever so slightly smaller on the 3.2TL hubs. I had an outer CV from an old Accord axle and tried to put it in the 3.2TL hub (passenger axle into driver hub, but I doubt the size difference stems from that). It was a tight fit that only made it after a few solid taps with a sledge. The 3.2TL hubs are from a junkyard s there could be small amounts of rust but I used bearing grease to help out the test fit. The important point was that it did not go in as smoothly as a standard Accord axle would have gone into its own respective hub. But it did eventually go through and I can tighten an axle nut on the other side.

Once this goes up on the car I'm not going to have the luxury of being able to tap the actual axle in with a hammer to get it to the point where I can seat it the rest of the way with the nut. I've considered my options and I certainly have a few. For the sake of this thread let's avoid relegating to using other knuckles that are proven to work. I want to use the '96-'98 3.2TL knuckle because of the trailing caliper orientation.

The easiest solution would be to find a hub/bearing that would fit the Accord axle easily and also fit the knuckle. The knuckle uses a press-in bearing and not a bolt-on so that limits my options. I looked at the BB6 Prelude because I know the Accord axle fits that hub. It appears that the bearing outside diameter is ~.2" smaller. So that's out. The '91-'95 Legends seem to use the exact same part numbers as the 3.2TL so that's out too(going off of memory here).

The cheapest method would be to get a very small file that had an acute angle and pass it through each of the female splines on the hubs a few times with moderate force to slightly increase their size. I know this sounds very ill-advised but the difference really seems to be that slim. Maybe this is one of those things that you wouldn't suggest to someone else in writing but you may have done yourself. Either way, without another true option it's being considered more than it usually would have been.

Lastly, something that's well within my power to do but I would like to avoid for warranty reasons would be to use the 3.2TL/Legend outer CV joints and mate them to the Accord axles. One of my Accord axles is already brand new with a warranty and the other will be soon. With my history with axles and the fact that this car is lowered and is forced to live its life on HORRIBLE Houston roads, an axle warranty is a nice thing to have.

Even if you don't think you can help but have other suggestions of potential parts I could look up, just toss them at me. Rockauto.com has been awesome because of all the dimensional information they provide. Thank you so much for your time to read through this and I hope we can come up with some answers to benefit us CB/CD Accord owners. Not that everyone is trying to accomplish this same thing but the more information/parts combinations that exist within the community, the better.

 

Hm. All this hassle just to be different. Hope you get some assistance.

 

It's not JUST for the sake of being different, though. It would allow the bleeders to be correctly oriented when the calipers are mounted on the car. The only other workaround for this would be to swap sides that the calipers mount on but the pistons are different sizes and designed to work most effectively how they are oriented from the Legends they came on.

 

I guess someone would have responded if there was a clear answer to be given. I guess I'll just get some precision files and see what I can come up with on the spare axles first.

Edit* I just realized I didn't provide any real dimensions for bearing/hub sizes. I should be able to get those later tonight. Even if I don't get answers I'll keep this thread on life support so that I might help others who want to be a pain in their own *** in the future.