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square tube drivelines

73redblaze

73redblaze

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I had this info somewhere but i never had specs for the rear shaft. I know most people use 2" inside and 2 1/2" outside with a .25" wall but i misplaced the lenghts. Would most recomend this? also does anyone have lengths for the rear driveline for a blazer. im running 56's in the front and 64s in the rear. Thanks guys
 
If you are running it on the street then a square shaft will not work. Trail only is fine. Most use 2x2xeither 3/16" or 1/4" wall inside of a 2.5x2.5x1/4" wall. Do not use receiver tube. I did and regret it. Receiver tube has to much slop. Just use regular tube and notch the inside tube to clear the welded seem. As far as length goes, you need to measure and figure it out from there.
 
I'm curious.
I have never had the urge to use square tube for a driveshaft, and I could see where it would have the potential for lots of slip.

But what is the reason for not running it on the street?
Lack of balance, or legality?

I use it for PTO shafts behind my tractor and it works fine at those RPMs.

J.
 
so i just need to run a grove down the middle the length of the shaft where the seem is right? am i understanding correctly?
 
Fordum said:
I'm curious.
I have never had the urge to use square tube for a driveshaft, and I could see where it would have the potential for lots of slip.

But what is the reason for not running it on the street?
Lack of balance, or legality?

I use it for PTO shafts behind my tractor and it works fine at those RPMs.

J.
Click to expand...


Lack of balance, depends on how centered you get the square tube on the yokes. I run drive flanges up front and have had my square front shaft up to 60 mph or so and never noticed it.


73redblaze said:
so i just need to run a grove down the middle the length of the shaft where the seem is right? am i understanding correctly?
Click to expand...

yep
 
I have not used a square driveshaft, or personally know someone that has.

I thought I read somewhere that the chances of a square shaft binding are quite a bit greater than a normal round shaft.

Any truth to this?
 
101_2255.jpg


101_2256.jpg
 
It's not bad

My bent rear d shaft is way worse
 
I have never had any issue with binding. The only issue I have is the receiver tube. I am going to cut my shaft apart and split 2 sides and make it tighter on the inside shaft and weld it back together. The receiver tube vibrates pretty good running around 10mph and above. I have slammed mine on the rocks pretty good with no issues at all.
 
four_by_ken said:
I have not used a square driveshaft, or personally know someone that has.

I thought I read somewhere that the chances of a square shaft binding are quite a bit greater than a normal round shaft.

Any truth to this?
Click to expand...

Binding, as in when its at full droop and then the front end drops and the shaft has to compress quickly it might bind worse? Probably.

But I haven't seen any adverse effects from this and my current doubler setup has two crossmembers and a support rod to help with this. A great idea for any t-case really, but square might be a bit worse than a regular shaft.

Having said that, I have beat the hell out of my square front shaft and would have folded over many .120" wall round shafts by now. I've killed round shafts and still run one in the rear though it doesn't see nearly the abuse.

One quote I saw from one of these threads kinda sticks with me "just think of a square driveshaft as having four spline", maybe you'll feel better about it ;)
 
I was having a hard time thinking why anyone would run a square drive shaft until I saw the pics. Thanks
 
So, are you guys trying to tell me that I should build both my driveshafts (front and rear) from square tube, then have them balanced at the local driveline shop?
 
BoondocK5 said:
So, are you guys trying to tell me that I should build both my driveshafts (front and rear) from square tube, then have them balanced at the local driveline shop?
Click to expand...

If you bring square tube driveshafts into a driveline shop they'll probably laugh at you, and with good reason.

Between the fitment between the weld yokes and the tube, the slop between the two pieces of tube and whatever other mis-fitments you managed to make during the process of making the shaft, the balance will probably be WAY off.

Quite simply, driveshaft shops make shafts from thin tubing (say, .060"-.120" at the thickest) and they're able to align them VERY closely before they're welded up. That means they're pretty easy to balance and keep smooth at high RPM.

Square tube drivelines are almost exclusively home-built and hence are usually not perfectly centered. Your best bet for balancing a square shaft is to cap the smaller (usually 2" x .250" wall piece) and then drill a small hole in the tube, add a liquid like ATF, then weld the hole shut. This works in the same way that balancing media works in tires. If you do this, I feel its a great idea to drill a hole at the very bottom of the bigger tube (usually the 2.5" piece) so that air can escape rather than be compressed by the now enclosed smaller piece of tubing.
 
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