[DeTomaso] Half Shaft Safety Hoop

Thomas Borcich tborcich at msn.com
Tue Dec 8 11:46:29 EST 2009


Larry, that was one of my thoughts. The one thought I have with that is the hole in the wheel house is half way up the half shaft which still leaves a fair amount of leverage from a flailing halfshaft and the opening is quite large still leaving quite a bit of room for half shaft movement. Art Stevens as we speak is doing something like what you are suggesting, so I need to go by and take a look at what he's doing. 

One of my fabricators ideas was to bring a hoop right above the frame rail with just enough clearance to give the half shaft the necessary range of motion. 

Jack brought up a scenario that I had not realized...the shaft breaking in the middle, not on the ends. I assumed that they broke at the universals.  That makes me think that a reinforcement band around the half shaft at the base of the threads with a few tack welds to hold it in place might give some added insurance and lessen the need for a hoop.  Thoughts?

Tom


> From: larry at ohiotimecorp.com
> To: tborcich at msn.com; detomaso at realbig.com
> Subject: RE: [DeTomaso] Half Shaft Safety Hoop
> Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 09:13:09 -0500
> 
> Thomas,
> 
> Now that you are having the wheel house repaired. What about just
> reinforcing the drive shaft opening? I would think 1/2" bar stock around the
> opening would keep the drive shaft in place should it break again.
> 
> Larry - Cleveland
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com] On
> Behalf Of Thomas Borcich
> Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 11:05 PM
> To: Pantera REALBIG forum
> Subject: [DeTomaso] Half Shaft Safety Hoop
> 
> 
> Not sure how many of you have had a half shafts break, but both of mine did
> at one point of the cars life. Both of mine broke at the inboard universal
> which can do quite a bit of damage depending on the speed when they break.
> On the inboard half shaft they keep flailing around until the cars stops. If
> you break an outboard universal all you do is put the clutch in and all the
> beating stops. Many dragstrip cars have drive shaft hoops so if they break a
> universal they don't have drive shaft flailing around, it is contained in a
> steel loop.
> 
> Since my wheel house repair is almost complete, I'm thinking about putting a
> half shaft safety hoop of some sort to contain the half shafts is they break
> again.  Has anyone else done something similar?
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> 
> 
> Tom
> 
>  		 	   		  
> _______________________________________________
> 
> Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
> 
> Archive Search Engine Now Available at http://www.realbig.com/detomaso/
> 
> DeTomaso mailing list
> DeTomaso at list.realbig.com
> http://list.realbig.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
> 
 		 	   		  


More information about the DeTomaso mailing list