1 or 2 Piece Drive Shaft

[PRIMRK]

Hey All,

Just nutting out what to do in the ae86 for the tail shaft.

The engine is 1UZ or 3UZ and im using a F series diff, im not sure iif i should keep that center bearing and run a 2 piece or just go a singe piece. finial power figure will be around the 270-300kw mark so i figure the one piece would be better as there are less components that can fail and would be stronger (im i looking at this the right way?!?)

[Billzilla]

Either will work - I run a one-piece behind a 3SGE and it's fine.

[PRIMRK]

Is one better or cost less or anything.

[Shakotan_Aaron]

i think the idea behind a 2 piece was less stress on the diff and gearbox bearings? as a tail shaft does have a bit of weight in it and the centre bearing helps to support a lot of the weight. i think also the movement of the diff can have some effect as well.

[Shifty]

I have always run single piece tailshafts in my modified cars.

I can't speak for the AE86 specifically, but I've never had a problem.

[BLK_20v]

Personally i prefer 2 piece shafts, but that was because the one I had in my bombadore kept banging on the floor pan, because the car was dropped on its arse. Probably not really an issue for sprinters.

You end up paying a substantially more for them to be made up / balanced etc.

[MWP]

2 piece shafts help remove vibrations, and lower the rear suspensions un sprung weight by a small amount.

[PRIMRK]

It's a track only car so a bit of vibration noise ain't an issue. Strength is a factor is a single piece stronger?

[foamy]

V8 supercars run a 2 piece for memory, never found out the reason for it.

[river]

Hi,

I can't see why there would be any diff in strength between a single or 2 piece tail shaft.

seeyuzz
river

[BLK_20v]

Yeah no massive difference in strength... Either will work providing you have adequate clearance.

[MWP]

V8 supercars run a 2 piece for memory, never found out the reason for it.

Are they live axle?
If so, its probably to help reduce the unsprung weight.

[3jcelica]

MWP

is correct, its all about vibration. Ford used a single piece tail shaft which is fine for asutralian roads, but when ford where exporting to South Africa the one piece had issues at 170-180 Kph. At these speeds the single piece act like a skipping rope and start to move into their second mode of vibration which can be catastrophic.

Holden use a 2 piece but this introduces vibration on take off usally dampened by a rubber donut. I really used to dislike how the vn used to take off under acceleration, this being the reason.

Sure you can stiffen the tail shaft, gearbox, diff to move the second mode of vibration up in terms of the speed you hit the vibration, but this may still be within the speeds that the V8 super cars reach, or close to it, therfore safer for them to use a two piece. Fords single piece may be shorter, geabox stiffer etc therfore they get away with it.

For a small track car, I would go single, for a large family around australia I would go single, for a large track car I would go 2 piece.

Roger

[mick08]

Speakin to Driveline services, its seems that there is a certain length maybe 1500mm or therabouts that single driveshafts can be max length, With my old Chev powered Torana i ran a 3.5inch dia tube with the big GTHO unis at both ends, they were fuckin big unis and i was told that the smaller dia 2peice driveshafts could get away with smaller unis and still handle the same power because of there reduced length, they said that V8 supercars can get away with much smaller unis than my Torana shaft even when makin 150+hp more.

[e30-323ti]

MWP

is correct, its all about vibration. Ford used a single piece tail shaft which is fine for asutralian roads, but when ford where exporting to South Africa the one piece had issues at 170-180 Kph. At these speeds the single piece act like a skipping rope and start to move into their second mode of vibration which can be catastrophic.

Holden use a 2 piece but this introduces vibration on take off usally dampened by a rubber donut. I really used to dislike how the vn used to take off under acceleration, this being the reason.

Sure you can stiffen the tail shaft, gearbox, diff to move the second mode of vibration up in terms of the speed you hit the vibration, but this may still be within the speeds that the V8 super cars reach, or close to it, therfore safer for them to use a two piece. Fords single piece may be shorter, geabox stiffer etc therfore they get away with it.

For a small track car, I would go single, for a large family around australia I would go single, for a large track car I would go 2 piece.

Roger

I 'had' a 3" 1pc in my E30-1JZ track car and it would do exactly that (1200mm uni to uni).

Had always run it on the street originally and was fine & smooth, when I took it off the road for track duty it was horrible, bone shaking vibration set in at the top of 4th down the straight, dam near packed myself.

Grafted in a modified JZA70 2pc, smooth as silk again.