DIY front drive shaft

[the truck doctor]

Is it or would it be feasible to make a square tube front driveshaft using two cardan joints one on either end with 5" of lift?

[WristPin]

search square driveshaft

http://forum.ih8mud.com/79-95-toyota...are+driveshaft

i am going to build one soon

[toyminator]

As long as your not going to ever need 4wd over 30mph. They are a bit noisy too.

[WristPin]

who does that? 4WD is about control, not speed.

[Hilux]

This is not for AWD rigs and possibly snow and sand, anywhere your speed is erratic.


The reason I said snow is because I like to lock my hubs in the event, and I can choose to engage 4WD or in dry, higher speed areas 2WD. If your hubs are locked or AWD the shaft will spin. It don't take no Rocket scientist to know the square tube shaft is not balanced, and will shake your teeth out at speed.


Its a great, simple, get you home in a pinch, mod that IIRC the first article I saw it in, the guy had it where it could work in the front or the rear

He only needed one spare.

[missouriman]

use just a u joint on each end. you will not be running in 4 wheel drive over 30 I hope. I wish that I had with my wifes and may redo it.
when I unbolt the drive shaft it binds up about 6 inchs below the diff. I would like more movement then that.

I also ran three lines of braze down each side.. not rattleing yet!
had to grind the brass a bit so it would slid in nice and tight.





line this part up square for phasing. This is a short piece of the inner to line up the larger outer. just weld the inside.











oh and the sliding end of the outer shaft. don't leave a sharp edge. grind it out to a pretty good ramp. so when you drop it onto a rock it won't bind up.

[missouriman]

oh here is a schedule 40 rear shaft thickness.



heck to balance,, will have to do a redo on this one some time.

vibes pretty bad at 50 to 65.

[the truck doctor]

this is for my project 87 trail only truck. so a lil vibrating is ok not gunna be haulin ass on the trail. reason I ask about the two cardan joints is to gain a lil more angle if that makes sense?

[missouriman]

actually the angle in the one picture is about the limit of the dual joint.

[Albin]

How I did mine, no double carden unit. No vibration up to about 50 mph, although I rarely take it that high in 4wd.

http://www.rocketcityrockcrawlers.co...%20Project.pdf


Good luck.

Al

[cokidva]

Nice write-up Albin. I'm doing mine tomorrow evening so I can wheel this weekend. I'll still vibrate with the rear for a while until I can get that CV done but in due time!

cheers

[rockrash]

One of the guys that I work with built his out of a pto shaft.That might be another option also if some of you country boys have them laying around.

[liljlandon]

Originally Posted by rockrash

One of the guys that I work with built his out of a pto shaft.That might be another option also if some of you country boys have them laying around.

My dad brought that to my attention, as we were shopping in Tractor Supply for parts on our buggy when there was a 4wheelparts across the street, funny thing is, the cashier says he sees more people with 4wheeldrives in there than at the 4wheelparts store...

[fortysixandtwo]

Originally Posted by toyminator

As long as your not going to ever need 4wd over 30mph. They are a bit noisy too.

Nah. I have done about 55 MPH in the snow in 4 high with a square front and it wasnt loud nor did it vibrate at all. Mine makes a clank clank from time to time and thats it. If you make your shaft very precisely they wont make much noise at all. my friend made mine for me and it was probably his 9th or 10th that he made. very quiet, very little vibration.