Originally Posted by
FBinNY
The wide spline isn't for strength. It's an orienting spline to ensure that individual sprockets are all in the same position relative to each other.
That's critical because the shift gates all have to be in the right place.
BTW there's no need to prevent sprockets from rotating back off the driving bar because it's a freehub and therefore impossible.
Never said the wide spline was for strength.
Said that as long as one of the splines is not cut-away on the back side, it is strong enough to prevent the sprockets from rotating in the non-drive direction.
Even the extra wide spline could be reduced, as long as the outer end is its full width
and one of the other normal width spline is full profile. One spline should still be full profile to make installation easier, if not the inner sprockets or spider can initially rotate out of position until driving force pulls it against the spline.