[DeTomaso] Half Shaft Safety Hoop

[Ken Green]

Maybe CV joint half shafts would defuse the issue?  They seem to be the preferred half shaft these days, and are suppose to add less drag than universal joints.  But I'm not sure about failure rates or exactly how they fail.  I've seen them on at least one big block conversion at Precission Proformance, so I assume they handle high torque well, even with large angle deflections.
 
Ken

--- On Tue, 12/8/09, Thomas Borcich <tborcich at msn.com> wrote:


From: Thomas Borcich <tborcich at msn.com>
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Half Shaft Safety Hoop
To: "Pantera Larry Ohio time corp" <larry at ohiotimecorp.com>, "Pantera REALBIG forum" <detomaso at realbig.com>
Date: Tuesday, December 8, 2009, 8:46 AM



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
> 
>                            
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