I've seen used NASCAR driveshafts listed in all sorts of lengths, as short as 40" and usually up from there in .5" increments. Maybe not quite as cheap as a junkyard but still less than a new one.
I've seen used NASCAR driveshafts listed in all sorts of lengths, as short as 40" and usually up from there in .5" increments. Maybe not quite as cheap as a junkyard but still less than a new one.
Toyman has a bit in (i think) his Datsun Lemons car build thread about shortening a driveshaft at home. He had good luck with it.
I potentially have access to a lathe...open to diy if it's not as risky as I think it is
It's not that hard to do well. Especially with a short driveshaft. The driveshaft in my spitfire is cut down from a lexus part and joined to the correct u-joint flange. No balancing so far and no vibrations under some pretty solid abuse.
Lathe or a fixture table and v-blocks will get you where you want to go.
If you are just shortening the stock driveshaft it's pretty simple. The shaft is a tube and the u Joint flange has a substantial lip that slides into the tube and keeps it square with the tube. Grind off the old weld to remove the U-joint flange from the shaft, cut the tube reasonably straight to the length you want (hose clamp around the shaft lets you make a nice straight line to cut), weld U joint flange back to shorter tube with the u joints clocked the right way.
I know you are going with an Atlas, but when I saw this picture I wanted to ask "which V12 are you putting in there?".
Got the body down as far as it will go before cutting the frame. Had to trim a few brackets and strip the frame of the fuel tank, lines, and other things. Not sure if I want to cut and reweld the frame, or splice in a 2x4 tube or something like that.
The whole rear half of the frame is the perfect width though. Will probably chop off everything behind the leaf spring shackle.
This is awesome.
Morgan Freeman agrees.
Noddaz said:I know you are going with an Atlas, but when I saw this picture I wanted to ask "which V12 are you putting in there?".
Given the, uh, style of that, I'd expect a GMC 702 liberated from some kind of long-dead stationary agricultural contraption. Machine-and-bow's interpretation should be significantly more elegant.
In reply to DarkMonohue :
That's the overbite I was talking about.
Cut and weld frame. See how far you can channel it!!!
To diy shorten a driveshaft you can buy weld yokes for cheap, just pick your donor shaft diameter an preferred u joint size (example : https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sdh-2-28-437 )
You dont need a lathe to true it up, your car is a perfect lathe.
Cut the tube to length, press the yoke on (pay attention to clocking and phasing) and before tacking it install it in the car. Set up a mag base dial indicator off the chassis so you can measure runout on the tube near where you are going to be welding. Spin it and tap it with a small hammer until you're under .010 or so and tack it. Repeat until you've got 3 or 4 tacks and burn it in.
I've done this on a few and never had issues or any vibration. I talked to a driveshaft shop and he said the factory ones can have more runout than what I was able to achieve using this method.
Thanks everyone, I feel like I can do the driveshaft myself now. Unfortunately my existing shaft bells out to a larger diameter than the yokes, so I can't simply cut it to length. I will try to find a constant-diameter one at the junkyard and use its tube on my yokes, unless I stumble up the goldilocks driveshaft, which might actually be the rear piece of the S10 2WD 2-piece shaft that eastsideTim mentioned.
For now I'm proceeding with frame surgery after removing the engine last night. Looking forward to Sawzall Saturday!
Hail yeah! Sawzall saturday = best day of the week
The pictures of it sitting on the frame make me think it'd look good as a gasser, or just a high boy hot rod.
Junkyard morning ate into Sawzall Saturday but got a lot done.
Rear half of S10 2WD ext cab 2-piece driveshaft. Might still be too long, but this one is cutable.
Also got some later Atlas coilpacks off a Trailblazer which should help with boost since these are supposedly the same internals as the proven LS coils. Also a 3 bar MAP sensor off a turbo Chevy Cruze and a random steel gas tank. The plastic one from the Colorado is too big and I can't modify it.
The new driveshaft is almost 15" shorter but that might still not be enough. The u-joint is the same size for the axle. The front is slightly diameters, but I bet my Colorado one will slip over the S10 one and weld up nicely.
I cut all the crossmembers and random brackets off the frame, revealing something almost aesthetically pleasing. Careful measurements have been made for the frame slices.
In reply to maschinenbau :
Sweet.
I'm in for sawzall activities 👍
A chevy S10 uses standard 1310 Ujoints so it should be easy to adapt to anything even if you have to buy a few parts.
I'm loving every second of this
maschinenbau said:
Based on the brake stool location, I suspet there were engine noises made while sitting in the "right" position.
Just hitting that recoup, and removing some parts for myself like column, gas pedal, and gauges. Body is almost ready for scrapping, which will certainly be a relief to my neighbors.
The manual trans stuff is selling well, since it's always cool to manual-swap anything. Here's $100 of recoup + plus shipping. Obviously I still need equivalent parts for the hot rod, but I figure I can build 2 pedals that package better for cheaper (recall the under-dash linkage contraption from the Rice Rod). I also have a brand new all-metal clutch master cylinder that came in the trunk of my Camry, which was apparently like 8 bucks on Rockauto. I plan to use that with a metal line and a $12 slave cylinder adapter as an upgrade over the OEM plastic molded junk that won't fit my body anyway. Plus it gets rid of the stupid GM quick-connect clutch fitting. More on that later.
Of course that means I need to pull the clutch slave out to install the quick-connect delete fitting. Which happens to be a good opportunity to pull the flywheel off too and delete the balance the shafts while the motor is on the ground.
I like how GM had two separate pedal boxes. Seems sensible from a modularity standpoint but also means that stand alone clutch pedal/master would be killer for a swap.
In reply to buzzboy :
Yeah definitely great info to have.
Now over $300 in recoup with both doors sold. I pulled everything else I could think of off the body that might be worth selling and it's time to scrap it.
First I pumped the gas out of course.
I am also pleased to report my frame pinch method worked well! I cut 3 pie slices out of each frame rail and squeezed them together. I had to do actual trigonometry to map out each cut of the frame. The frame width near the front of the body went from 46" to 36", just narrow enough to fit under the body.
I will need to notch the leading 6" or so of the body, but I think that will look really cool with the frame poking out.
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