Anyone else snap drive shaft bolts
 

Has anyone tried to launch the car and ended up snaping the bolts that hold trans to the drive shaft??

nope

WHOA! Doesn't sound good. :facepalm:

You cant dump the clutch in the pig, it's heavy, fat, over weight and did I mention it's to big?

i wish ibroke my output shaft and warrentty denied!!!!

Nice. :rolleyes:

Ask me how I know, or dont. My launching method has made over 150 passes as far down in the 10.20 range at 139 mph with the stock drive shaft and axles.

I do not dump the clutch, you cant do it. 4000 pounds and popping the clutch = bye bye

Weight has little to do with it (although it does matter). When you're producing 400+hp at 5400rpms or more and you drop the clutch...the stresses experienced by the drivetrain at that moment are so tremendous, the vehicle's weight (be it 3000lbs or 4000 lbs) won't matter: It has a significant chance of failure.

i snapped mine man. wasn't even launching, just going in reverse up a slope and SNAP! new driveshaft and new bolts were installed. when mine broke, it felt like my driveshaft was tearing up the underbody of my camaro.

I broke the 3 bolts that hold the drive shaft to the rear end. They broke hitting second gear with street tires on. But they may have been weakened from prior launches with Drag Radials.

Every one needs to upgrade the bolts on both ends of the drive shaft. The do make higher strength bolts. Threads into output shaft of rear end are a poor design. The bolts shear right wear the threads start after passing through the hole in the drive shaft flange. It would be better to drill out the threads and use a nut so that the bolt shaft goes through both peices but there is not enough room for a nut.

Also make sure the threads have loctite. Mine did not. They may have been loose and this would contribute to breakage. However, since they were loose we could screw out the broken threaded part with out having to drill it out.

Both front and rear safety loops are a good idea to prevent damage to exhaust, gas tank, etc. if bolts or drive shaft itself breaks. I know some one who broke the shaft.

I have also read that the bolts from CV joints to wheel and to differential are a weak link and when they shear they cause the CV joint/axle to break. It would be a good idea to up grade these as well.

Lol:w00t:

I really dont know how hard you guys are on your cars but I beat the hell out of mine. I have not had any of the problems you guys are experiancing. I would guess my car has made more passes then any other Camaro owner out there, I broke the output shaft once. They fixed it.

The heavier a car is the harder it is on parts, other then that I dont know what to tell you.

Anyone know where to get some stronger bolts to replace the stock ones?

I would be interested in this too. Brandon at IPS Motorsports had a customer shear off the 3 bolts from the driveshaft to the rear differential yolk - driveshaft tore up the gas tanks. To replace the gas tanks the rear cradle has to be removed!

IPS Motorsports replaced with stronger bolts from "McMasters", but they were unable to locate a part # for me. I ordered and recieved 1 replacement bolt from a Chevy dealer to show a local specialty hardware company. Hardware guy had tons of stuff and able to special order, but couldn't match the size of the head and diameter of the special "shoulder" on the bolt just below the widened head. Without the shoulder, bolt could have too much clearance, so it could slide and then snap! Stock is a 10.9 hardness and next step is a 12.9 from what I've learned. He said I'd probably have to step up to a black 12.9 bolt with allen head or torx like the other 3 bolts IF I can match the shoulder and head size.

Next step (still waiting) is definite need for a rear driveshaft loop..... much more important damage wise, than front loop.
BMR has been working on one for a while.

For now I'm hoping that pretty much eliminating wheel hop with engine mounts, rear diff bushings, trailing arms, toe links, and chassis brace save me. Could definitely be messy and expensive!