MT right drive shaft — inner CV joint alternatives

Tags: #manual-transmission · #cv-joint · #mazda-6-compat

The right drive shaft of the manual-transmission (MKPP / МКПП) X80 is a recurring pain point for Victor 🇷🇺 and others in 2026: the original inner joint is no longer sold, replacements show play, and the intermediate shaft (промежуточный вал, also called подвесной вал, with its bearing support) is awkward to service.

Original inner CV joint and tripod alternatives (Sep 2026). On MT cars the right inner CV joint (ШРУС) is a ball-type unit, original number B5DA022520, which is not on sale and probably never will be. The substitutes are of mediocre quality and use a tripod (трипоид) joint made for the Mazda 3 (BK) 2.0 MT (BKEP): Febest 0511-M320MTRH, Triali GO-816, ASVA MZIR-M3M2, Zikmar Z87755R, Sufix ST-1519 and others. Victor 🇷🇺 advises buying several and keeping the one that has the least play on the intermediate shaft (all of them will have some) ¹. He also notes that the "original" outer joint is not really original either, only something more compatible; he does not think a 26-spline half-shaft exists, and decided to buy the right half-shaft complete because his outer joint already had clear play ². He finally bought the only right drive shaft assembly for MT available on Emex and ordered a right inner CV joint separately ³. The intermediate shaft and the half-shaft are sold only separately, so a complete shaft is not the only route ⁴.

Fit test: Sufix ST-1519 vs Zikmar Z87755R. The Sufix played on the shaft as much as the original joint, the Zikmar even more, although the Zikmar tripod seated better on the axle. The Sufix circlip (стопорное кольцо) was of the wrong diameter, its spline seating was about 1 mm shallower and its housing smaller in diameter; Victor 🇷🇺 fitted it anyway for the lower play, but recommends neither it nor the Zikmar. He says ASVA looks like a copy of Zikmar ⁵. The video shows the Sufix tripod with the retaining clip from its kit ⁶.

Right-shaft vibration at 70,000 km (Oct 2026). Victor 🇷🇺 has driveline vibration at about 70,000 km. He bought four inner CV joints for the right shaft; on the new splines of the shaft the Febest ones hold very loosely, and Sufix holds tightest but its tripod is poor. He ordered a Chinese right half-shaft from AliExpress, due in mid-November 2026 (outcome not yet reported). He notes that many Mazda owners got rid of vibration only after replacing all drive shafts, at over 200,000 km ⁷.

Intermediate shaft: parts and fit. An intermediate shaft from a Mazda 6 GG manual (for example Febest 05126GG) should fit, but the bearing support must be the X80 one; Victor 🇷🇺 doubts the length, since the Mazda 6 GG shaft is about 60 cm while he measured the X80 part at about 61 or 63 cm (he could not remember which, and the shaft changes length by design) ⁸⁹. For the support bearing he recommends 62062RS and says to avoid bearings with metal shields: they die from water within about 50,000 km. Measure the support seals before buying: ZVCL067 fitted properly, ZVCL135 was 0.2 mm below the bore size and spun in it (the old one was refitted); people more often fit Febest 95HDS-38620513X ¹⁰.

Service pitfalls. Do not assemble the intermediate shaft with its bearing and support before checking the dust boot (пыльник) on the gearbox side: Victor 🇷🇺 had already pressed the bearing on when he found the boot problem, and the second press, with a puller, used up part of the bearing's life. His silent video shows the gearbox-side oil seal being measured with vernier calipers against the housing ¹¹. Removing the inner joint from the intermediate shaft is hard: Victor 🇷🇺 spent five hours without success because a circlip blocks it, and eventually took the ball-type joint apart instead ¹²¹³. Arсhi 77's service clamped the shaft in a vice and drove the bearing out with a mallet (киянка), after a long struggle ¹⁴. Victor 🇷🇺 also drove the shaft out by striking it through the joint's end cap, which is not very strong ¹⁵. Before removing a drive shaft, measure its assembled length both relaxed and pushed in until the tripod hits its stop, so the correct length is known for refitting ¹⁶.

Spline counts, AT vs MT. Victor 🇷🇺 measured: both the automatic (AKPP / АКПП) and the manual drive shafts have 28 splines at each end; the intermediate shaft differs, with 24 splines on the MT and 30 on the AT. He thinks the drive shafts mainly differ in the inner CV joint, so an AT shaft may fit an MT car, but the intermediate shafts are different ¹⁷.

Play in the shaft: how much is normal, and a fix. Валерий reported play in the right shaft: looseness of the tripod on the shaft and play in all directions inside the wheel-side joint, plus play on the splines ¹⁸. Disagreement on severity: Arсhi 77 says some play on the gearbox-side splines is normal ("pay no attention, I have it too"), and that a hand shake at the wheel is acceptable within reason ¹⁹²⁰; Валерий measures about 1 mm at the tripod edge and some rolling, which he finds worrying on an automatic ²¹²². For spline play Victor 🇷🇺 describes a fix used by some Mazda owners: cut a thread in the shaft end, pass a bolt with a washer through the CV joint housing (стакан ШРУС) and draw the parts together, preferably with a new joint so that it seats tighter than the old combination. It is a near-permanent fix that stops further spline wear, but later disassembly can take about two hours of hitting the housing; he points to drive2 threads on the Mazda 6 and Mazda 3 ²³²⁴.

Media

Right drive shaft laid on cardboard: inner joint with a bracket and bolts, splined outer end; the inner joint will not slide off the intermediate shaft because of a circlip

Yellow homemade shop press with a 10-ton bottle jack pressing a shaft in its frame

Video frames: a tripod-type CV joint (trunnion with rollers) in a hand with its small retaining clip on the splined end, the clip being the item Victor questions (Sufix ST-1519 kit)

Silent video frames: a metal-cased oil seal held against the gearbox housing lip while vernier calipers measure its outside diameter

Related pages

• CV joints and boots — INKO, Motus, tripod case
• CV joint (шрус) factory play and grease quality
• Drive shaft vibration and CV joint repair
• Drive shafts, CV joints & axle seals
• Clutch kit — Mazda 6 GG fitment and parts

Sources

This page is compiled from 24 community messages. Every fact carries a numbered reference to its original author and message.

Last updated: 2026-10-29