Where Can I Get My Driveshaft Made For My Conversion?

[Guest Anonymous]

Where is the best place to get a custom made driveshaft to work with my 77 280Z V8 Conversion?I was thinking about MSA,but they're a little bit over my limit of just buying on the spot.I decided to check around a bit.Any ideas?

 

Thanks.

Izzy

[DavyZ]

A good driveshaft shop can fab one up from scratch for you, or they can modify (shorten) a Chevy driveshaft for you--one from the junkyard should do just fine. Find one with good smooth ends for a leakproof seal.

 

Davy

[Guest Anonymous]

Go to drive shaft or drive lines in the yellow pages and start dialing and asking. For a baseline comparison, ask what the Neapco pinion flange adapter #2-2-899-1 costs. A lttle over $30.00 is a good entry level price. Over $ 50.00 is a big mark up. You want the drive shaft made to accept 1310 Spicer outside clip u joints Ask what a complete balanced drive shaft with ujoints and adapter flange cost made to your length and specs (which you will not be able to ascertain until your tranny and diff are in place and you physically get under the car and measure). The drive shaft will be around 20 inches plus or minus.A complete one should not cost over $175.00 and a drive shaft you supply to shorten and balance should not run over $75.00. I went looking for a slip yoke to fit my 2004R tranny since the manual tranny slip yoke on the ($10.00 swap meet with 2 new 1310 Spicer ujoints) aluminum Corvette drive shaft would not fit. The pick and pull wanted $20.00 for a drive shaft with a yoke of which I could not find. Go to a second yard that wants $35.00 for a yoke. Go to a third yard where I buy the drive shaft and yoke for $10.00. Now I have the yoke,one good ujoint and the makings for another straight shouldered drive shaft that can be re-shortened. The 700R4,2004R,400 and 350 Turbos usually have the same yokes.. Make sure of the yoke in whatever tranny you buy because the 2-2-899-1 adapter flange is a 1310 Spicer ujoint flange You can pick up a drive shaft and have it shortened.Look for one with a straight tube from tip to tip. My donar car did not have the 1310 Spicer ujoints so I could not use any of it.

[Guest]

Good advice (as always tomahawk).You might want to also get a hold of Pete (moderator)he had his driveline high speed balanced,which is highly advisable in these rockets.To my understanding alot of shops balance but not high speed.Just my humble opinion.

[pparaska]

Yeah, a few shops around do actual high speed balancing. A local driveshaft place near me does mostly big trucks. They said their machine only goes to 3000 rpm. I had my done by ITT/Dynotech near Detroit MI - Jim Biondo sold me and old shaft he had and had it shortened and balanced by them before it was sent.

[Guest Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice guys.That was a big help.I was also thinking about some reinforcement??I had plans to make an 'X' shaped piece of 2 pieces of welded together steel evenly in the middle and not stacked on top of one of the other lenghts of steel.Weld 4 brackets to the underside frame of the car,1 behind the front left wheel,1 behind the front right wheel,1 in front of the rear left wheel,and 1 in front of the rear right wheel.Those brackets could have studs and the 2 pieces of welded together in the shape-of-an-'X' steel could have small flanges with a hole to fit exactly over the bolts that will be on those welded on brackets and bolt on.That way I can just loosen the bolts and bring the 'X' down if I have to do any work under the car.Does anyone get what I'm saying?It's a bit hard to follow,but I think that it will work.Of course,it will be under everything underneath the car thus it will be easy to take out in the need of.I was thinking about an 8 Point Cage,but they're a bit more than I want to spend.Will this steel 'X' provide the least bit of reinforcement?I don't think that there would be any kind of twists in front of the front wheels and in behind the rear wheels because of it being a bit tougher in those places because of other bolted on components.I don't plan on warming up the engine just yet except for maybe a set of 10:1 Flattop Pistons and a set of Performance Heads.But I know that I will sometime in the future since I am going to sell my Chevelle to do this Conversion if I don't back out.Does anyone think that this will work?I have had some decent ideas in my life and some not so good.I just thought that this might help a bit on the reinforcement on the frame from the V8.Any help or advice is appreciated!

 

Thanks.

Izzy Middleton

[Guest Anonymous]

Zoncr and PP good points on "high speed drive shaft balancing" Actually the extra service never occurred to me . This lack therof may account for vibration in a "balanced" drive shaft at high speed rather than a possible driveline angle problem. Just because it is balanced does not mean it is "balanced" for high speed