Identify these half-shafts?

[zeeboost]

These are on a 1975 280z - the only thing I can think of is a custom shaft. I haven't seen one that looked like that on another vehicle.

 

 

 

Thanks

[BRAAP]

Very interesting. Maybe some sort of Euro half shaft from another Chapman strut application like the Fiat X-19, etc?

 

Is that some sort of “Dukes of Hazard” special Z with the high tech droop limiter and “bubba custom” mustache bar for those across the river jumps?

[OlderThanMe]

hmm...weird.

could it possibly be in there backwards and just not have the boot on it?

 

Also does it have an r200 or r180 or neither?

[zeeboost]

I haven't had a good look at it yet. I'm assuming it should be an r200 since it's a 280z. I'm not exactly sure why that cable needs to be there. I just picked it up last night and dropped it off at my work. This is going to be my widebody Z, and I'm hoping that these half-shafts will be able to hold the stress. As of now I'm shooting for 700-800+ hp. That won't be for a while, though.

[RB26powered74zcar]

I thing the cable is there to limit the travel for what ever reason. The mustash bar end links look modded also....

[zeeboost]

I'll rephrase that. I'm sure that's why the cable is there, but what I don't understand is under what circumstances you would need to limit the travel.

[buZy]

Maybe the loop cable is to keep the custom half shaft from seperating in two pieces at full droop when jacking... or river jumps.

700-800 HP myself would not trust and ditch those for a cv conver or good rebuilt oems. That's a lot of power your planning for.

[JMortensen]

Maybe the loop cable is to keep the custom half shaft from seperating in two pieces at full droop when jacking... or river jumps.

700-800 HP myself would not trust and ditch those for a cv conver or good rebuilt oems. That's a lot of power your planning for.

I think buZy has this right. The other reason to limit droop is to limit body roll, but that doesn't look to be the case here. Search "droop limiters" and you'll probably find a bunch of threads where Cary (tube80z) talks about them as an autox modification.

[JMortensen]

You might check the size of the U-joints on the halfshafts, but unless they're really big I'd still look at a CV conversion. Looks like someone welded weird ends on the mustache bar as well, as if to solidly mount it to the frame rail there and attempted to elminate the bushing in a weird way. Funky car. Am I correct in assuming it was built for drag racing?

[zeeboost]

Correct. I bought it from a guy who owned an automotive shop. He said it was his friend's car, but when his friend went into the service 14 years ago it was put into storage. Recently, his friend asked for an estimate to get the car running, which was more than he was willing to pay, so he just told the auto shop owner to keep it. I may have misunderstood the guy I bought the car from, though, because his english had a heavy accent and it was a bit difficult for me to understand him at times. The car doesn't run, but the owner said he sprayed starter fluid in the car and it popped a few times, so first in line will be to drain the gas tank and clean/rebuild the holley carb. The guy I bought it from didn't really know anything about it. Basic info: It has a scarab v8 (don't know what size), I'm told a 4 spd tranny, and 295/50/15 in the rear.

 

Odd you say to switch to a CV conversion. I thought the general consensus here was that U-joints were stronger than CVs. I could see myself doing an R-230 conversion on this one, but I was first going to look into custom u-joint half-shafts for strength purposes.

 

Here's a nightshot:

 

[JMortensen]

As a strict rule U-joints are stronger than CV's.

 

In the case of a Z, the commonly available CV's are MUCH stronger than the commonly available U-joints. The stock halfshafts are a carry over from the 510, so the original design was for a 1600cc 4 cylinder car that barely weighed 2200 lbs. That's why I said if the U-joints are a lot bigger than stock you might keep them, but otherwise I'd go for a CV swap.

 

I don't know if it really matters to you since this is more of a straight line car apparently, but the stock halfshafts are not just a simple slip yoke. They have big ball bearings inside that allow it to slip even under hard acceleration. These custom units look to be a more simple slip yoke. The issue there is that the torque from accelerating might not allow the slip yoke to compress and that might lock the suspension up. I don't know that for sure, that's just a guess looking at a small picture over the internet, so take that for what it is worth.

[Roostmonkey]

those cables are most likely a ghetto lowering kit

[JMortensen]

those cables are most likely a ghetto lowering kit

Definitely not. They aren't even close to holding the suspension in a lowered position, and it's pretty clear that the halfshafts don't have a lot of length to them. It seems pretty clear that they're droop limiters to keep the halfshafts from coming apart.

[zeeboost]

The only type of racing that I can think of where the cable would be needed is rally racing, or some form of it. I was told, however, that the car was setup for the 1/4 mile. Why these would be needed for the 1/4, I can't figure out.