Custom driveshafts/ welding/ sleeving etc

[pegwie]

So I am trying to do a bit of forward planning in regards to joining the driveshafts for my project civic with a vag engine. 

I have looked at a few options, now before anyone says, I have looked at custom new shafts but they are way out of my budget, for now anyway.


The method I have been thinking of doing is getting both driveshafts to be mated turned on the lathe, one with a female pocketed end and the other with a male 'dowel' type arrangement to slot into the other to keep it straight. Would this be enough to keep them straight? Both ends would be tapered to allow welding after. Then sleeving on top?

It's to take around 230bhp/250lbft so not sure if it would be good or not. 


The thing that makes me wonder, is both the civic and vag shafts being of a different unknown strength etc. Is this going to be an issue? Or any other ideas, please do tell!

[kusanagi]

I have done what you are thinking of doing on my v8 spit forum.retro-rides.org/thread/188122/1971-triumph-spitfire-3500-v8 and it seems to be ok. What I did was to machine one shaft with a dowel and a taper behind it and the other shaft with a hole drilled for the dowel to fit into surrounded by a taper, the two shafts where then fitted together in a large lump of angle iron and clamped tight then slowly welded then turned and re-clamped, this repeated until the weld was slightly proud then it was put in a lathe and turned the welds to the same diameter as the shafts. Next a piece of CDS thick wall tubing was forced down the shafts until it covered the joined area by about 2 - 3 inches this was then welded.

 I hope this is of some help.

[pegwie]

I knew I'd seen it somewhere before, read your spitfire thread the other year! Bloody lovely car. Excellent thank you, was the angle iron to also act as a heat sink? I'm aware i need to keep away from it getting too hot and going brittle

P.s. love the mustang too

[froggy]

Ran cut n shut on a couple of cars , shock loading will snap them but I’ve put 400+ lb ft through them with no issues . My method is to make a sleeve with two long slots in and an interference fit to get the cut ends in . Weld the long slots and a quick pass around the ends as that’s where they will want to snap .

[procrastinator]

Angle iron mentioned in kusanagis post would be to keep it all straight. Some Audi shafts are already hollow so might save a bit of turning. Guessing you are using 1.8 turbo by the figures quoted. Might also be worth looking through the GKN list to see if spline counts in different CVs would make a conversion. No good if you need a longer/shorter than normal shaft though.

[pegwie]

Mar 21, 2018 21:51:05 GMT froggy said:

Ran cut n shut on a couple of cars , shock loading will snap them but I’ve put 400+ lb ft through them with no issues . My method is to make a sleeve with two long slots in and an interference fit to get the cut ends in . Weld the long slots and a quick pass around the ends as that’s where they will want to snap .

Brilliant thanks, just out of interest what vehicle was it on? Reason i ask is the setup I'm using has one long shaft & one very short. So I've drawn up an intermediate shaft/bearing holder type deal to give it equal length shafts, but not sure if it's overkill

Mar 21, 2018 22:24:22 GMT procrastinator said:

Angle iron mentioned in kusanagis post would be to keep it all straight. Some Audi shafts are already hollow so might save a bit of turning. Guessing you are using 1.8 turbo by the figures quoted. Might also be worth looking through the GKN list to see if spline counts in different CVs would make a conversion. No good if you need a longer/shorter than normal shaft though.

Aware it was to keep it straight, just wondering how much of a heat sink is wise! Yeah I have both hollow shafts and solid in the workshop to pick from, trial and error i suppose! The hollow mk3/4 ones I chopped open do look quite thin, so not sure I feel confident using them. 

Ah yes, that would be great but I have to alter the lengths, cheers for the suggestion though! I had thought about getting an inner cv adapter turned up, but again shaft length needs altering

[froggy]

I run them on my Talbot express camper with a Volvo T5 engine . O/s shaft is a two piece so roughly the same length as the n/s . The other car is a reliant kitten with a Saab turbo engine in the back , very short shafts and eventually snapped at the drag strip . I have shafts made by Geoff berrisford at gb engineering now £330 a pair with spines for 100mm ford lobro type joints .