We got a hold of an E51 and its axles from a Japanese Levin GTZ from Redstar Racing, and cleaned that up to use with the 4A-GZE. At the inboard side, the axles are different compared to the regular 4A-GE and 4A-F(E). The automatic 4A-F ones are much smaller than the Levin units, which incidentally are considered "equal length" because the RH axle mounts to the block, then pivots at that point, creating a somewhat equal distribution of torque. The resulting unsupported axles lengths are the same, but the axles themselves (right side versus left side) are different lengths.
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The top axle (with the shiny inboard end) is the LH MR2 S/C unit. The bottom axle (with the rusty inboard end) is the LH Levin GTZ unit.
If you're paying close attention, you'll have picked out that the longer axle in the FWD AE-series is the RH unit. The MR2's longer axle is the LH unit because the entire drivetrain is rotated 180° so that the timing belt side of the engine is on the left side. -Carl
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You can see the size difference of the inboard splined ends. From left to right: 4A-F auto axle, Levin GTZ axle, and MR2 S/C axle.
We decided to once and for all figure out which CV boots will fit the Levin axles. This was probably the easiest time for us to access the CV boots, and since some of them were kinda messed up, it would be much easier to replace them now. We took them apart, and cleaned all that nasty JDM grease out of them. Be sure that you take a serious look as to which way the axles come apart. Once you have taken it apart, things start looking really similar. After taking some measurements of all the axles, we discovered that the MR2 boots will not work, nor will the 4A-F boots. Crawling under Carl's car, we found out that all the Levin boots are the same as his front left outer boot: 10mm long, 90mm diameter on the big end, and 29.5 mm diameter on small end. Problem solved! After ordering the parts from the local store, we slapped them on, along with some new Redline CV joint grease. New problem. The OEM CV boot bands (Toyota style) do NOT work with this setup. Although the boots themselves fit, the bands are slightly too small in diameter. Get yourself some longer, universal metal replacement ones, and you should be fine. In a pinch, we used some heavy duty, long plastic zip ties. Believe it or not, they have stood up to autocross abuse fairly well, with no signs of failure after several thousand miles.
And, YES!, we did clean up and polish the Levin's rusty inboard ends before installing it. -Carl