An axle from a 1973 or 74 nova will fit in the housing, but the studs are 7/16 instead of metric. you will also need to use the nova brake drum because the hole in the center of the drum is slightly bigger on the nova. Also the nova has a tapered axle and is not as strong. I would not go in search of the nova axle unless you happened to know of a junk one laying around, and are gonna use the axle temporarily. Other than that, you need another GN/442 8.5 axle.