HomeMade Driveshafts???

[OffRoader93]

I was wondering if a guy could just make his own driveshafts out of .25 wall round tube. Buy tube the same diameter as your stock driveshafts. Cut the stock driveshafts out where they are welded to the yoke and weld in the new tube. Making sure you weld them straight. I know for high speed this wouldn't be great cause of balancing issues, but for offroad wouldn't it work fine? I think they would be very heavy duty if done right. Any feedback or any info would be appreciate. Thanks a lot.

Brenton

 

[mr_beer]

I just made my rear shaft last month when I did my auto to manual swap. I bought the tubing from a local shop and had them mill the ends down with a lathe toet them perfect. When I welded the ends on I made damn sure they were perfectly straight. I have been running the truck for a litte over a month with no problems.

 

[OffRoader93]

Hey thanks for the reply. I just think a guy could make some very tough driveshafts. On the farm we make all kinds of our own **** that gets abused alot and it never breaks. Thanks again.

Brenton

 

[sickquad]

.25 wall is way strong. .125 would work. Never a worry with .25 though.

A shaft in torque gets its strength from having a larger diameter more so than thick wall.

 

[gravdigr]

You can also go thick wall square tubing.

 

[OffRoader93]

Would it be really hard to get square stock aligned with the yokes straigt? Thanks guys for all the input.

Brenton

 

[kennyw]

Alot of guys have been running the square tube shafts for a couple reasons:

Strong and Simple Slip shaft configuration.

You can use 2 different size peices of square tubing that slide inside of eachother to transmit power. Works great for trail only use, but starts to vibrate alot over 20 mph.

 

[GMC]

You can also go thick wall square tubing.

That's what I got in the front. So far so good. Cost me about $15 and I have about 10" of slip travel in it.

 

[84_Chevy_K10]

Keep in mind the friction between the two square tubes has caused transmission, transfer case, and adapter failure in the past.

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

Keep in mind the friction between the two square tubes has caused transmission, transfer case, and adapter failure in the past.

i.e. When lots of torque is transmitted through a square driveshaft there is tons of friction (and possibly even the smaller tube starts to turn inside the other) which prevents the shaft from slipping (getting longer or shorter) which is extremely hard on axles and t-cases.