aluminum drive shaft - anyone?

[cdrazic93]

no, no one has mentioned the spring characteristics or damping forces of the materials together.

[skye67]

Hi, has anybody pointed out going to aluminum driveshaft you lose a u-joint? I'm not a rocket scientist or physicist but I have built off road trucks and loathe u- joints. living with one less u- joint in my drive train is enough for me to go to a solid aluminum driveshaft..

[CSG Mike]

Originally Posted by Poodles

Could you get me specs on the driveshaft? Length, diameter and material thickness would be great.

I'll see what I can do...

Originally Posted by skye67

Hi, has anybody pointed out going to aluminum driveshaft you lose a u-joint? I'm not a rocket scientist or physicist but I have built off road trucks and loathe u- joints. living with one less u- joint in my drive train is enough for me to go to a solid aluminum driveshaft..

THIS (I mentioned it above too!)

[Koa]

Originally Posted by skye67

Hi, has anybody pointed out going to aluminum driveshaft you lose a u-joint? I'm not a rocket scientist or physicist but I have built off road trucks and loathe u- joints. living with one less u- joint in my drive train is enough for me to go to a solid aluminum driveshaft..

at the least, we could upgrade to spicer u's (used to have a built & caged 85 yota and '99 xj )

[EAGLE5]

I think we really need to think about the use of various drive shafts as weapons. The aluminum is clearly superior to the two-piece stock design. It's hard to swing such a heavy hunk of metal when part of it is flopping around. Not only is the aluminum lighter, it's one-piece design avoids the whole flopping thing. However, the AL shaft is also 3" in diameter. That's pretty hard to wield. I speak from experience. The carbon fiber shafts are a bit thinner, at 2.75" in diameter, one-piece, and lighter than stock, making them the superior bludgeon.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

I think we really need to think about the use of various drive shafts as weapons. The aluminum is clearly superior to the two-piece stock design. It's hard to swing such a heavy hunk of metal when part of it is flopping around. Not only is the aluminum lighter, it's one-piece design avoids the whole flopping thing. However, the AL shaft is also 3" in diameter. That's pretty hard to wield. I speak from experience. The carbon fiber shafts are a bit thinner, at 2.75" in diameter, one-piece, and lighter than stock, making them the superior bludgeon.

Yeah, says a lot coming from an armchair driveshaft warrior. The two-piece is not only capable of storing much more kinetic energy, it's capable of delivering it to targets around corners. Try THAT with an aluminum driveshaft. What good is a crumpled up pretzel?

[stugray]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

I think we really need to think about the use of various drive shafts as weapons. The aluminum is clearly superior to the two-piece stock design. It's hard to swing such a heavy hunk of metal when part of it is flopping around. Not only is the aluminum lighter, it's one-piece design avoids the whole flopping thing. However, the AL shaft is also 3" in diameter. That's pretty hard to wield. I speak from experience. The carbon fiber shafts are a bit thinner, at 2.75" in diameter, one-piece, and lighter than stock, making them the superior bludgeon.

Referring to this?

Originally Posted by stugray

If I stood back and clocked someone over the head with a 30 lb driveshaft that had 3800 joules stored in it, that person would likely get up and kick my ass.
If I hit that same person with a 2800 lb car that had 1272176 joules stored in it,it would separate all their appendages, then fly through the person and knock down the building behind them.

[EAGLE5]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

Yeah, says a lot coming from an armchair driveshaft warrior. The two-piece is not only capable of storing much more kinetic energy, it's capable of delivering it to targets around corners. Try THAT with an aluminum driveshaft. What good is a crumpled up pretzel?

What do you know about me and my drive shaft combat experience? How many times have you stepped into Thunderdome, huh? Two men standing, one man leaves. That's my motto. With a "crumpled up pretzel," I can end you!

https://i.imgur.com/lbbm2.jpg

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

What do you know about me and my drive shaft combat experience? How many times have you stepped into Thunderdome, huh? Two men standing, one man leaves. That's my motto. With a "crumpled up pretzel," I can end you!

https://i.imgur.com/lbbm2.jpg

Thunderdome? Pure marketing hype. I cannot help you. Science cannot help you if you drank the kool-aid and liked it.

You can fight me but you can't fight physics!

[Poodles]

Originally Posted by skye67

Hi, has anybody pointed out going to aluminum driveshaft you lose a u-joint? I'm not a rocket scientist or physicist but I have built off road trucks and loathe u- joints. living with one less u- joint in my drive train is enough for me to go to a solid aluminum driveshaft..

Hate to be "that guy" but it's an entirely different issue on offroad trucks.


- Crazy amounts of torque by using low range transfer cases.
- Bad angles that the U-joints aren't designed for.
- If bad angles are used, they use a double U-joint as a CV joint to get around the angle so the u-joints don't fail.


None of those issues effect this chassis as it's not a live axle and the two piece shaft is more likely to counter critical speed issues...

[burdickjp]

Just guessing here: driveshaft whip is what we're trying to avoid. It's basically the driveshaft acting like a jump rope. With aluminum this can cause work hardening. This can make it weaker to other stresses, such as torsion. If your driveshaft twisted in the middle I bet it was likely work hardened from spinning too fast.
I'd expect if a healthy driveshaft were going to fail in torsion it would be at one end or the other rather than in the middle. The leverage of the length of it causing some bending to add to the torsional shear. I'm guessing here.

[Cross]

Originally Posted by DustinS

The problem with the aluminum driveshafts is interference with short shifters. I know it does hit on the TRD quick shift kit, and I have read one or two accounts of issues with the Kartboy shifter.

I had the aluminum driveshaft on my to-do list until this issue arose.

I'm trying to find some of the threads on this as I just put in my single piece abd randomly second best will just refuse to allow me to shift into it up our down shift situations. Other times it's fine.

Really need to find a solution for this as it sucks.

[DustinS]

Originally Posted by Cross

Really need to find a solution for this as it sucks.

Remove the Mod you like less, or buy a Carbon Driveshaft unfortunately.

I am still upset over it myself.

[stugray]

I thought of another reason why a LWDS should make no difference in HP measurements while discussing this on anoher thread.

Here's another reason:

While measuring the "Brake Horsepower", the oldest method in existence is to run the engine (or CAR in the case of a chassis dyno) at a constant RPM while applying the "Brake" and finding the point at which the engine can just hold RPM at max output.
The hp rating was determined at this constant RPM by how much power is consumed in the "brake" (hence the term "brake-horsepower")

How much hp is a lightweight driveshaft stealing from the system while it is rotating at constant RPM? the exact same amount as a heavy driveshaft rotating at constant RPM - ZERO.

Same concept applies to any rotating mass - IF you can measure HP at a constant RPM (which you CAN), then the mass of the rotating assembly does not matter in the HP measurement.

Will a driveshaft that weighs 10 pounds lighter than your competitor help you beat him to the end of a quarter mile? - SURE.
The same as removing the 10 pounds from anywhere on the car.