FULL Replacement Aluminum Driveshaft (No Longer made)

[Bender]

For those of you that don't follow my website, I broke my driveshaft and rear end at the end of the last season. I just thought I would share what I have been doing to the Tuners community.

Since I didn't feel like spending $700 for half a driveshaft, that wouldn't even be fully balanced, I decided to look into different options. Not to mention, my stock driveshaft broke at the rear end, so I couldn't use the Driveshaft Shop unit if I wanted to. Also, adapter plates have no place anywhere near my car.

This lead me to get some work done by a well respected local company, near the outskirts of Detroit. They make some of the best shafts for the Mustang and Camaro community. Again, I feel the surpassed the competition.

First thing is.. well it is a full replacement! Comes with custom transfercase yoke, 3" (3.5" option) aluminum main driveshaft, new carrier bearing, 2.5" steel rear shaft, and a custom rear companion flange.

This means the full driveshaft is balanced, not just the front section.

Also, since it is the rear section that normally breaks.. what good is it buying an aftermarket front section? This rear section uses solid high performance Spicer 1310 Neapco U-joints, made right here in the USA.

When I weighed the this new shaft from transfercase to rear end.. I got 28.2lbs. This was on a bathroom scale.. so take it as you will. I am unsure what the stock driveshaft weighs. If someone knows.. please chime in.

Now for the best part. They are selling them for $800 dollars! That is around the same price as the competition, only you get twice as much.

This may seem more like a review now because it is all said and done, but it was a discussion on the link forums, which I updated with issues and pictures as things arose or were completed. I am just bringing everyone up to speed on what has been happening over the past few months, and look forward to a discussion.

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Here are the installed pictures. There are more on my site (Automatic DSM'S)

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[Team Addiction]

So whats the weak point now?? Ive been looking into this myself and thinking on what could be improved Im thinking steel ends would limit breakage at the joints.

 

[95eclipser]

What's the name of the shop? I'm interested

Drew

 

[Bender]

Oh. The shop is called Shaftmasters. What is really sweet, is they offer free shipping on most of their products. This may have a service charge since it is a 2-part shaft, though.

Mitsubishi Eclipse Eagle Talon Driveshaft

The weak point now for the 2g's are the differential covers now (You can see the nice hole I punched out in mine). You can get custom girdled plate-steal ones, which is what I ended up doing. After that, it is the transfer case. Some people may just break the transfer case, with the rear cover holding up fine. It all depends on the condition of your differential bushings.

The problem is if the driveshaft breaks, it swings around and tears up the under-side of your car, and can also be very dangerous. I would much rather have a transfer case blow gears on the ground, then a driveshaft come flying up through my floor board.

Edit: week /= weak.

 

[motozachl]

Wow I'm impressed

 

[JMGSX]

In the spirit of full disclosure, the unit has had minimal testing on the road (less than 100 miles I believe) and zero track time.

That being said, I would buy one tomorrow if I had the funds. I am sure it will be a purchase I make in the future when it is needed (ie. car is in many pieces now).

 

[gingerbredman00]

This is off topic but is your exhaust always like that?
I imagine it would flow nicely..

 

[t25fury]

I must say this has my interest peaked,it seems to be a very nice quality package,I didn't see any hp ratings on this so please keep us updated on any reviews you might have after you get your car running.

 

[secondnature]

Oh. The shop is called Shaftmasters. What is really sweet, is they offer free shipping on most of their products. This may have a service charge since it is a 2-part shaft, though.

Mitsubishi Eclipse Eagle Talon Driveshaft

The weak point now for the 2g's are the differential covers now (You can see the nice hole I punched out in mine). You can get custom girdled plate-steal ones, which is what I ended up doing. After that, it is the transfer case. Some people may just break the transfer case, with the rear cover holding up fine. It all depends on the condition of your differential bushings.

The problem is if the driveshaft breaks, it swings around and tears up the under-side of your car, and can also be very dangerous. I would much rather have a transfer case blow gears on the ground, then a driveshaft come flying up through my floor board.

Edit: week /= weak.

Looks awesome ! I would like to have one myself but dont want to spend the money on it . ALso you could always put a driveshaft loop to keep the driveshaft from coming through the floor board or anything like that.

 

[hubz91talontsi]

How do they only offer one driveshaft for 90-94? No difference between the 3bolt rear and 4bolt?

 

[daren_p]

When I weighed the this new shaft from transfercase to rear end.. I got 28.2lbs. This was on a bathroom scale.. so take it as you will. I am unsure what the stock driveshaft weighs. If someone knows.. please chime in.

I only had a fully assembled stocker, so had to try & balance it upright to get a weight, from what I can tell looks like the stocker runs somewhere between 35.5-36lbs.

 

[Tanro]

That is sexy...

 

[Bender]

Wow a lot of replies.

If I miss your response, I am sorry. Please repost it.

Anyways, about time Daren. I was wondering when you were going to come in.

As for HP rating, it isn't the proper rating for these driveshafts.. why DSS does it eludes me. Same thing for running a driveshaft where only half of it has been balanced. Here goes my explanation on HP rating.. people with over 1,000 hp and 8 second 1/4 mile passes have used the DSS front section with the oem rear section. In my personal experience, the rear section is the weak section (it is the part that let go on my car). This shaft replaces the rear section with solid u-joints, which are ALOT stronger than are hollowed Ram D50 u-joints. Also, the rear section has been upgraded to 2.5", which is thicker and stronger than the stock rear shaft. Obviously the front shaft has been upgraded. Therefor, these driveshafts *should* be good for over 1,000 hp and 8 second passes. Overkill for most of the DSM community.

This raises the question of "Why go with 3.5 inch then?" This is because of the harmonics that driveshafts experience at a certain speed (critical speed). Typically the longer the section, the lower RPM that speed comes. The thicker the driveshaft, the greater the RPM it can handle before reaching critical speed. Since this driveshaft is fairly long as it is replacing 2 sections, it needs to be thicker.. resulting in a 3" section. Some people that would want to rev even higher will need the 3.5" section. Daren_P and I figured out what the RPM limits would be of each shaft depending on what transmission you run, and what gearset you run. The 3" should be enough for most people. I am hoping he still has the info written down for me to post, and forward to Shaftmasters. If not, it will only take a few minutes to recalculate everything.

There are many things I need to do before the track this season, and a driveshaft loop is one of them.

There is only one for the 1g's as the rear companion flange (the flange that sticks out of the rear end that the driveshaft bolts to) is the same for both rear ends. The 3-bolt / 4-bolt differences lie not with how the driveshaft bolts up, but how the half shafts bolt up.

Also, the car is currently running, as of last Thursday. I probably should have mentioned that, but I didn't want this thread to seem like a "review." If you are curious though.. it drives super smooth. My car is even smoother now than it was with my stock driveshaft.. which I didn't even know I had a problem with until I tried this one. The new carrier bearing (which comes with it) probably helped a lot too.

I took my car out for a quick tune session, and I ended up running out of injectors on my new setup. I am at 104% duty cycle at 25 psi (I was at 85% at 30psi on my old setup). I did a few calculations in AEMLog, and I am flowing 60 lbs/min of air.. which equates to roughly just under 600hp. I am also out of fuel pump, so I need to do a full upgrade before I can push this turbo further.

About the exhaust.. I sold my turbo setup during the process of putting the new driveshaft on. Since it was a custom downpipe, I sold it with the setup to make it a "PNP" affair. I ended up taking the cat-back system off too. Now it is even higher flowing.. A 4' section of 4" stainless. Here is a video I took because of some questions regarding how loud it is a few people asked on another forum.

Side Exit Exhaust Video by ?????? - MySpace Video

Again, I am sorry if I missed anyones response, but I am in a hurry. I will read back over them tomorrow and pick up anything I may have missed.

 

[dsmmack]

Oh man seriously! Why couldn't you guys have come out with this a year ago. I tried to find a local shop that would make exactly what you have here and no-one would make me one. F$*k I ended up giving up and bought a DSS shaft late last year in the end. (have not used it yet)

How much are these shafts? Damn it.. I want one.

Anyone want to buy a DSS shaft that has only been installed never driven? !

 

[1995gsx20g]

yes!! i was just about to stall a little longer and rebuild my driveshaft with new u joints and carrier bearings. not like im any where near braking a shaft but im tired of the thumping.

 

[Bender]

The shafts are 800 for 3", and 815 for 3.5" That includes the custom front yoke, main aluminum section, carrier bearing, 2.5" steel rear section, custom rear companion flange, hardware, and I believe even new bushings to mount the carrier bearing to the studs under the car.

The prices are based on what we were discussing a few days ago.

 

[FLASH1970]

Great, now I have another part I need to buy... (sigh) j/k. It looks really nice. Do they make half shafts as well?

 

[dangler]

Ok, here's a stupid question I could probably answer on my own, but I'll ask it anyway. Why can't the rear section be made of aluminum? And also, does this come with a yoke option for running the big shaft transfer case?

 

[Morphius]

This raises the question of "Why go with 3.5 inch then?" This is because of the harmonics that driveshafts experience at a certain speed (critical speed). Typically the longer the section, the lower RPM that speed comes. The thicker the driveshaft, the greater the RPM it can handle before reaching critical speed. Since this driveshaft is fairly long as it is replacing 2 sections, it needs to be thicker.. resulting in a 3" section. Some people that would want to rev even higher will need the 3.5" section. Daren_P and I figured out what the RPM limits would be of each shaft depending on what transmission you run, and what gearset you run. The 3" should be enough for most people. I am hoping he still has the info written down for me to post, and forward to Shaftmasters. If not, it will only take a few minutes to recalculate everything.

I think a better way to describe it is, the larger diameter increases the moment of Inertia which makes it stiffer.

 

[Bender]

Great, now I have another part I need to buy... (sigh) j/k. It looks really nice. Do they make half shafts as well?

No, they are a local company that just specializes in driveshafts.

Ok, here's a stupid question I could probably answer on my own, but I'll ask it anyway. Why can't the rear section be made of aluminum? And also, does this come with a yoke option for running the big shaft transfer case?

Another yoke could be made for an additional cost. The reason the rear section is steel is because of the carrier bearing. Aluminum is too soft for it to be dependable. Not that stupid of a question.

I think a better way to describe it is, the larger diameter increases the moment of Inertia which makes it stiffer.

The larger diameter increases the moment of inertia, but doesn't make it stiffer. Granted it is stiffer, but not because of that. The increased moment does offset the start of the harmonic vibrations.

I'm sure I could have explained it better, but I was just trying to show the why it is important, and not the how it happens aspect of things.

 

[Morphius]

The larger diameter increases the moment of inertia, but doesn't make it stiffer. Granted it is stiffer, but not because of that. The increased moment does offset the start of the harmonic vibrations.

I should have said (Second) Moment of Inertia or Area Moment of Inertia. They use the same symbol and engineers commonly call the Area Moment of Inertia, Moment of Inertia. Anyway, the tube, with an increase of diameter, is directly stiffer due to an increased (Area) Moment of Inertia.

 

[Bender]

That's better. I thought you were talking about moments around joints and axis's, so I was assuming a moment around the central axis of the driveshaft.

 

[Achelea]

Is this strictly for 2gs? I've wondered about 1g replacement... And it looks like they simplified the page they had for DSMs.

 

[dsmusmc]

Is there any clearence issues with the 3.5" shaft with a full 3" exhaust system?

 

[nkosi]

hey fella's i called the company shaftsmasters today and the driveshaft they make for the eclipse gsx has fail a race test and they are not making any currently till the failed parts have been inspected by engineers and are replaced with a stronger version ....so we all have to wait till they accomplish the task before we can purchase the two piece and they did not give me a time line of how long this will take ...but im going to wait on then cause its more bang for the buck than the shaft offed by the driveshaft shop...