[DeTomaso] CV joints

[Darryl Johnson]

Bob, my case is a little different in that with the big block motor
(including the adapter plate on the back of the engine to allow a ZF small
block bell housing mate up) I had a bit of an angle (5% to 7%) on the CV's.
Second, since my car is 10 inches wider in the back that a stock Pantera and
has a much longer custom set of drive shafts it exacerbates the overall
problem of managing the delivery of torque to the outside CV's.

The real problem with the outside CV joint that failed was with the fitment
of the proper rubber joint seal to keep in the graphite grease. Once we
replaced the rubber seal correctly the joint has been without any issues.
The replacement of the outer CV in my case was quite easy and simple since I
have C-5 Corvette hubs at all four corners. I believe the C-5 Corvette hub
complete with CV and stub axle was $159. Didn't go look this up but if
memory serves me that's the price.

However, to support the CV conversion I have to say that once the seals were
correct and all things buttoned up right the CV's have not failed or even
been an issue. I have run many more high speed rough road mountain runs
along with maybe 30 or more Mojave Mile runs as well as a few track events
with absolutely no issues. The car has seen many runs of 176 mph to my best
of 183.77 mph at Mojave with no issues. In fact, at this point I don't even
think about the CV's much except to safety check.

To put this into perspective these CV's routinely see high horsepower and
torque. The chassis dyno figures for this car showed 557 HP and 610 ft/lbs
of torque. This power level when linked to the sticky 345 18 Hoosier R6's
with no issues speaks well for the CV joints on my car. The CV configuration
I have is the BMW M1 version on the inside installed by RBT and then the
Corvette C-5 on the outside.

Sorry for the long response but hope this clarifies the issue a bit in my
case. Bob did see an issue after our hard mountain run but once properly
sealed I don't believe that would happen again.

Darryl Johnson

-----Original Message-----
From: DeTomaso [mailto:detomaso-bounces at poca.com] On Behalf Of bens1 via
DeTomaso
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2014 3:13 PM
To: detomaso at poca.com
Subject: [DeTomaso] CV joints

Not sure I would go with CV joints
seems like you can't turn things when the car is raised and wheels hanging
down otherwise the boots get torn.. Darryl with monster power in his Pantera
ate a set doing the over the hill run we do to the coast.. real tight in
places, twisty and off camber.. he thought he tweaked his trans until he
removed the CV joints and parts started falling apart... I recently replaced
my set last year after running the old ones for over 8 years hard..
they were already old before.. bought a newly rebuilt set with cad coatings
from Tommy Hodges work fine... I did change the bolts and nuts and seems
like I am not always tighten them after I run the track

my 2 cents- Bob Benson