Square tubing Driveshaft?

[littlejackass]

Has anyone made and run one? Thinking of making one for the front of my samurai seems like a cheap long splined driveshaft!

[TheSarg]

Last i heard, i think MudSlug was contemplating building one, might wantto get a hold of him and see how its going

:bo:

[Depot]

if i understand u right.. u wanna make a complete drivesaht (slip yoke too) ooutta square? the biggest problem i see with that right off hand is rounding and warping... even if u use 1.4 inch wall square tubing.. under some serious stress, ur gonna round the corners and distort that square just enough so that one square wont slide into the other quite nicely. i ran into such a problem with some custom toy driveshafts... a tiny bt of rust accumulated near the top of the slip yoke and one day under compresion she hit that rust and wouldnt extend... wound up ripping the t-case mounts off instead. now that was with a very tight round style shaft.. i can imagine what could happen with a square style with only 4 points to dent instead of like 15.

worth considering

Depot

[MuddMachine]

Originally posted by Depot
i can imagine what could happen with a square style with only 4 points to dent instead of like 15.

Depot

Apparantly it works great :eek:

[KAC]

Use PTO shaft off of a farm tractor, it's like one big slip yoke.

[littlejackass]

Depot u think 1/4" would bend?
My biggest concern is the shaft not sliding right.
My plan is to run 2" .25" for the male end and 2.5" .25" for the female end.

Depot what did you do for driveshafts when you swapped to toys? I have a 86 IFS cv driveshaft that I will be using for the rear and have nothing right now for the front.

[Mudslug]

Lots of poo to do around here lately so i haven't had time for the write up yet. Overview

distortion: no way, they run big blocks in front of these things and drop them out of the sky onto rocks without any issues

balance, um no..nada...
Remeber we are using trail hitch stock here, it really freaking strong
noise. Not if you wrap the slip part in the fuzzy side of velcro and coat it with CV grease...

pics

[Mudslug]

and

[TheSarg]

That looks killer dude, time well spent, u running it at Suzican???

[Mudslug]

No Suzican...No zuk...Toyo only.

I am in search of an LJ tub for next year, I was going to go tracker but an LJ is what I want now.

[TheSarg]

Hey MudSlug, here's a thought, just showed my pop the pics and with his background he made a very valid suggestion:

Altho less readily available, triangulated stock would be a little better, reason being

1: Less friction on the slip yoke
2: Triagles are stronger (more resistant to bending)
3: Less Overall weight

The one downfall of triagulated tubing would be the twisting torque absorbtion. It would have less flex then a square but more flex then a circle, but to provide more flex use a slightly thinner wall or shorter sides. If this helps ya awesome!!!
If not an entertaining option

Sarg

[Mudslug]

Can you get super thick wall triangle stock really cheap though? Hell the stcok I picked up was from Princess Auto and was $35 and I thought that was expensive...Metal Mart is way cheaper.

Also you have to look at how much material you would be cutting off your yolks to make the triangle match up.......plus getting that dead square would be a real bitch...yes no??

[TheSarg]

Atually dead square is simple math, and yes as i posted triangle would be less readily available, but there are some real benefits.

And as fer the shaft, the sleeve system u made on yers rawks, pertaining to triangles, would it not be easy? Simply use an extra pinion side (flat plate) and weld the triangle to it then just a simple installation of the u-joint. You would need nothing at all from the original drive shaft.

Im not a fabricator like u guys, so my ideas might be out to left feild, feel free to correct me on anything, as this is a learning experience fer me too.

[Mudslug]

I think you could be right but just welding it to the flat plate would be too weak, check out the picture below that is how it should be done IMHO

[Mudslug]

Then it gets cut and inserted....(relax sickos)

[Mudslug]

Then when welded you paint and make pretty

[Mudslug]

If you use Triangle tube you need to do all kinds of math to get it straight and if some stupid H**p owner get ahold of this write and thinks he can do it himself we will have all kinds of trouble.

Because we all know H**p owners are......wait for it......

[Mudslug]

hold on!!!

[MuddMachine]

You fawkers !!! :eek: Hey Mudslug....... dat some kool chit. :D

[CaptN Air Time]

balance would be a bitch, but I guess if its for trail use it doesn't matter, especially on the front. I know some Bronco guys have done this to make a universal spare, that will extend or collapse to take up the 12" or so difference between front and rear lengths. Balance is NOT an issue when you just wanna get home :bang:
I run a lot with hubs locked on the highway, and the vibration would anoy the hell out of me, so I don't mind spending a few bucks for a good slider and balance job.