Beefy half shafts

[billymanfroy]

Jesse at High Angle is getting into buggies. These things look beefy and they have a torque fuse to save the joints. Pretty cool!

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=509119

[therail]

how does that torque fuse work?

[zetapsi827]

I heard the front 4x4 axles out of a nissan truck will work really well too. can anyone second that??

[billymanfroy]

how does that torque fuse work?

The bolts are designed to shear at a certain load. He says these are set for 8,500 ft/lbs. and good for 700 hp. From what I understand, it shear the bolts, but the shaft stays together somehow and just spins. You just line up the holes and put new bolts in and you're off again.

[1450-ranger]

As long as the bolt doesnt bend, it sounds like a good idea.

[Stephen]

good idea for axle shafts, not so good idea for driveshafts. In a driveshaft, what do you protect, one axle shaft? Then you're leaving 1/2 of your drive torque on the table. Do you protect both shafts from breaking at one time? Then you can break one at any time.

[UP_ROKTOY]

Jesse makes good stuff, I like the idea of the shear bolts, I wonder how well it would work in a driveshaft application as well?

[johnnyweb]

it is being used in driveshaft applications as well. i have a couple buddies using them in there rockcrawlers. it has been a little bite of a learning curve to figure out how strong of fuses to use.

[UP_ROKTOY]

it is being used in driveshaft applications as well. i have a couple buddies using them in there rockcrawlers. it has been a little bite of a learning curve to figure out how strong of fuses to use.
That's where my curiosity was peaked, Though most RockCrawler's I know would rather not engineer a weak link into the drivetrain. To me it seems like a great idea in fast off road trucks as well as slow speed crawling.

[FABRICATOR]

That's where my curiosity was peaked, Though most RockCrawler's I know would rather not engineer a weak link into the drivetrain. To me it seems like a great idea in fast off road trucks as well as slow speed crawling.

If you mean dezert racing, it would be a very fine line between go and no-go. Many components are running on the ragged edge. Something quickly re-setable would be nice.

Some big old Cadillacs, and the like, had compact, rubberized drive sections in their driveshafts. They were more for the reduction of driveline vibration but looked beefy enough for a Trophy Truck. Actually, some internally sprung trailer axles use the same principle, but with a bit more rubber.

[Devin J]

Some big old Cadillacs, and the like, had compact, rubberized drive sections in their driveshafts. They were more for the reduction of driveline vibration but looked beefy enough for a Trophy Truck. Actually, some internally sprung trailer axles use the same principle, but with a bit more rubber.[/QUOTE]

Is that similar to what was done with the Toyota 010 trophy truck? I remember reading that the axle shafts could twist almost one full revolution to soften out some of the harder hits to the drivetrain.

[FABRICATOR]

Several off-road cars, and as I recall one of the Toyotas, used rubber torsional dampers in the final-drive shafts. They were not at all like the Cadillac style, but were a radially placed donut shaped piece with 6 bolts going through it. 3 bolts came from the drive flange side, and 3 from the shaft side. Open-wheel road cars, including Indy cars, not only used them for twist but also as the inner CV joint. They allowed rotation of around 10-15*, and angle of around 10-12*.

[Hollowpoint]

I remember that the cars from way back in the day used axles like these, cardan style u joints. Granted, these half shafts are higher quality, stronger, etc... but how would you guys compare these with the typical 930/935 CVs overall?

I thoguht the reason for u joint style axles to become extinct in modern racing because of the vibration from the nature of that kind of joint. I like the idea of having a higher operating angle, and the torque break feature, though. Price seems good, as well.