One Piece Drive Shaft? experiences?
 

OK Guys,
We are upgrading our 88 NA, getting it ready for the next 24 hours of lemons race. Keep in mind it's about 14 hours of racing - dependability, longevity and reliability, thats the key here.
So we are looking at switching to a 1 piece drive shaft. Anyone know why toyota originally chose a 2 piece? we have had no problems with the 2 piece, but changing out the bearing is pricey, and having to get the ujoints pressed in, a PITA.
So what is the qadvantage of the one piece? does it create any issues with drive shaft angle? and any dependabilty?
Information and experience are valued here. WAGs don't help us much!


thanks
Carl Johansson
Johansson Brothers Racing
pS - "Slap a turbo on it" is not the solution we are looking for here!

no experience with the supra driveshaft change, never messed with mine when i had it.

ive changed other driveshafts out without problem (dads 98 taco and a couple mustangs). personally, i hate carrier bearings with a fiery passion and think they should go back and kick the crap out of the cunt-hole that spawned them... but im ranting.

ill see if i can find stock drive shaft angles for the U-joints, and as long as youre within the limits, you should be fine.

i think its around 4-5*, but ill look around.

looks like 2-3 degrees is stock uncancled is stock. so as long as its not bent way outta wack, you should be fine.

just check both output and pinion angles and if its not over a couple degrees you should be fine. just be aware that youll get more vibrations through a fully solid shaft. (lemons car, gotta be comfy! haha)

The 2 piece drive shaft is just to reduce driveline vibration on our luxurious sport cars. Cant have vibes splashing our coffee everywhere! It also helps to distribute the load better across the extra u-joints, resulting in joints that seem to last nearly forever. A 1 piece shaft is definitely more suitable for racing, you probably wont notice a difference since you're thrashing the car anyway. Aluminum should be fine for an n/a engine. If it were making big power, I would stay with steel. I've driven supras with 1 piece and 2 piece shafts and felt a definite difference in vibrations at certain speeds but nothing terrible.
If you stay within the angles hilux has posted and use a well balanced driveshaft, you may not even notice a difference.
If you decide to keep your stock shafts and end up trashing the support bearing, I've learned that a 92 Ford Ranger (2WD 3.0L) uses a nearly identical bearing at a 3rd of the price.

El Supracabras, I do agree with you. So many of the Supra owners are kids and trashing their cars. The child who I bought mine from had a one piece in him. My guy had a funny vibration at 50 mph and it got worse with speed. The little frackers trick ruined both of the axles and the differential.
So in the end you may get a little more speed at the expense of destroying the car. Think about the drive assembly coming apart during a high speed race. So it then becomes a safety issue. I could care less as long as you are destroying American mussel cars.
Oh update my guy is in the paint barn. Until now "I have seen better cars in the junkyard" has been the usual response from people. :D

ford parts in a toyota?!?! BLASHPEMY!!! haha. actually, now a days, if i was going to buy a car/truck...id prolly buy a ford...

gonna start a 5 speed swap and twin turbo project on my buddies 06 f150 this next year. that oughta be interesting: 600 hp twin turbo 5 speed 06 4x4 f150 rolling a 4 inch lift and 35s (he already has 35s on with a 2" level). can you say, corvette surpriser?

anyway, im gettin off subject. i think as long as the shaft you get is balanced properly you will be perfectly fine. an aluminum shaft, as long as its a decent one, would even be strong enough for a GTE. there are 600+ hp camaros and firebirds runnin around with 2.5-3 inch aluminum shafts. i used a stock 1LE aluminum shaft for my 84 z28 and had close to 400 hp. never had a problem.:bigthumb:

The punk that sold me my car needs to be drawn and quartered or better forced to drive only government motors cars or trucks. The bleepard had put a one piece ford drive shaft in mine :rant2:

ouch :outahere:

Little brat went back to Arizona, yea a one piece Ford driveshaft that would not balance out. (shop said it was ok) Suppose if you want to drift it makes no difference about the drive ability of the car. So what is a one piece drive shat suppose to do? What puzzles me is people on this blog are so CHEAP. Not wanting to put even a few extra dollars into their cars for quality.

now ranma, there are cheap ppl here, but most of us are "budget minded" (ie: basically cheap haha)

i dont mind spending some bux to make my car/truck better. but when it comes to 80 dollar bearings that have gone out within 5-8k miles, that adds up, and it shouldnt be that way.

ive had to replace my dads carrier bearing 8 times since hes owned the truck. that is the only thing besides brakes, air filter, plugs, wires and oil changes hes had done. we finally put a one piece driveshaft in, and voila, works perfect with no problems, for the past 35k.

a one piece drive shaft takes less power to turn, therefore providing more power to the ground. so if you do a performance build it is advantageous.

in the case of carl's (thread starter) he wants a drive shaft that is easier to change u joints in, and one that he doesnt have to replace the carrier bearing so often in. he pushes this car pretty hard. so a one piece driveshaft enables him to have longer running intervals before replacement of u joints, as well as more power to the ground, while sacrificing minimal ride comfort.

for his application, it works and is reasonable. for a daily street driven supra, the stock 2 piece driveshaft is definitely more comfortable and suits it just fine.