OLD CAR CLOSED DRIVESHAFTS 2

[bobo60]

hi,

ive heard of "closed driveshafts" that were used on early 40-50's american cars, but never had the oppertunity to actually see or work on one. i beleive the actual driveshaft is inside a torque tube. how do u get to the u-joints to remove the shaft, and what is the purpose of the tube?

thank you,

bob

 

[evelrod]

Greg, this is your area of expertise, but I suspect that chassis 'stiffness' as it relates to 'noise' plays a roll in the selection in the Mazda and, particularly, in the all aluminium chassis of the new Ferrari.
I put a close 'eyeball' on that baby. If I ever have a spare quarter million...she's mine!

Rod

 

[alwcurlz]

I bought a 1960 Buick LeSabre that had an enclosed driveshaft. I never knew why they did that although I considered it was an over-kill protection for the U joints. I never thought that this would be for a torque application!

 

[Tmoose]

The u-joint in my 1953 GMC lives in a stamped ball shaped housing. The U-joint uses bushings, no needles, and is not restrined axially, probably to tolerate misalignment between ball housing and shaft centerlines. The rear leaf springs are curious flimsy things, which I figured was because they had no obligation to control differential attitude.

 

[MachIIIRayzor]

The Porsche 944 used this system along with IRS.

 

[OP800]

We still use closed drive shafts today in open wheel sprint race cars.
They are about 3 feet long.
The torque tube is bolted to the quick change housing.
At the motor, there is no transmission. The crank has a ring flange bolted to the crank and the U joint bolts to that.
The end of the torque tube has a slip joint with a ball on it's end. At the motor, there is a plate that has a matching matchined joint that holds the tube ball in place with a ring. This assembly is a precision lubed moving fit.
There is alo a 'yoke' style hook up that leaves some parts open.
The GM and Ford cars had torque tubes at last to 1948 and some beyond. They have the same ball type slip joints at the trans end.

 

[amorrison]

To OP800

Do you know of locations of pictures/drawings/suppliers of these sprintcar drive systems - especially ring flange to crank connection. Thanks

 

[OP800]

I don't have my Winters catalog handy but they make the torque tubes, ball mounts and market crank flanges for mostly Chevrolet engines and some other applications.
We run FORD so there is not much available to us at the engine end of things so we have our parts manchined so we can hook up the drive shaft and torque tube.
The bell housing in a sprint car is quite flat for the car we run so had to have it CNCed from scratch to fit and use the standard torque tube ball mount.
The drive shafts can be cut to lenght as well as made from steel or even Titainum.
Here are basic mfgers of these part that are marketed to speed shops.
Winters, Richmond, Franklin and there may be others.
Search the web for speed shops that handle these companies.
I know Winters has a catalog that would give you nearly all you need to get started.
These companies make rear assemblies for a wide range of cars from Midgets to street cars, in alum and mag metals.

 

[Fabrico]

You can also try Speedway Motors at

http://www.speedwaymotors.com

 

[OP800]

The right photo of the yoke and flange is what we run on the sprinter to fit a Ford crank.