CARBON FIBER DRIVESHAFT

[jamesc1123]

I don't think I saw this among the benefits of a CF driveshaft that were already posted, but if you do manage to break your CF driveshaft, it will come apart similar to a paper towel tube if you ever try to twist one against the wraps. So there's no threat to the driver and minimal to the vehicle, whereas a snapped aluminum or steel shaft becomes a spinning propeller of doom.

[GFORCE1320]

Originally Posted by jamesc1123

I don't think I saw this among the benefits of a CF driveshaft that were already posted, but if you do manage to break your CF driveshaft, it will come apart similar to a paper towel tube if you ever try to twist one against the wraps. So there's no threat to the driver and minimal to the vehicle, whereas a snapped aluminum or steel shaft becomes a spinning propeller of doom.

Very good point, it wont catapult your car either

[MG]

I wish all threads were this constructive!




Is there a reason these cars come with a two-piece shaft?

[Doc]

Originally Posted by MG

I wish all threads were this constructive!




Is there a reason these cars come with a two-piece shaft?

It's a cheaper and easier way for the design engineers to control the harmonic/vibration issues. There's a fair amount of flex and movement in the Camaro drivetrain which, while helping to mask out the harshness of road conditions, also costs power to overcome the inefficiencies of the basic design.

There's typically a 15% difference between the power at the engine crank, and the power that makes it to the rear wheels. Improving the efficiency of the drivetrain can recover some of that lost power; you just have to spend the money to do it. GM could have done it but then the car would have cost more and they were trying to keep the price of the car down so it would appeal to more people. The average customer doesn't know any of this in the first place so it's only something performance enthusiasts would be interested in.

[Driveshaftshop]

In a plain simple answer yes, if the tube (or tubes in this case) is shorter it will have a torque rating

[Driveshaftshop]

had our manual guy machine the fins off the CV to see how light we could go with out taking the strength away, as you can see from the picture there isn't a real big difference but its still .5 lbs

This along with the 1310 u-joint on the trans would make it about 3lbs lighter than the 17lb aluminum shaft we now sell and even more with the new Carbon fiber shaft will will have after the holiday (our CV spine section is 1/2 aluminum, not the standard steel like most would have)

[Kyle2k]

What would the estimates be on engine power that this thing could handle?

[GFORCE1320]

Friday must be a good day to machine on cv joints LOL, we machined a few down while working on our shaft design and got the same weights
half a pound is half a pound.

[Doc]

Originally Posted by Driveshaftshop

had our manual guy machine the fins off the CV to see how light we could go with out taking the strength away, as you can see from the picture there isn't a real big difference but its still .5 lbs

This along with the 1310 u-joint on the trans would make it about 3lbs lighter than the 17lb aluminum shaft we now sell and even more with the new Carbon fiber shaft will will have after the holiday (our CV spine section is 1/2 aluminum, not the standard steel like most would have)

Weight saved is weight saved. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you finally come up with for the CF shaft.

[GFORCE1320]

We should have our new designed carbon fiber and aluminum shafts ready right after Christmas.
Precision Shaft Technologies makes our shafts and we provide the trick components like billet pinion yokes and the front cv stub shaft assembly.
We've been machining a new batch of billet pinion yokes, the billet pinion yoke gets rid of the OEM 3 finger yoke on the diff and eliminates the adapters back there.
A billet pinion yoke is the strongest and most vibration free way to mount a driveshaft to the rear.
We are also machining a new style u-joint mount for the rear of the driveshaft that will bolt up to the OEM yoke for the guys that don't want to mess with changing the yoke out. It will use the big heavy duty 1350 series u-joint.
It will also eliminate the adapters used on the rear that are commonly used.

Lots of innovative products coming your way for 2011

Thanks
Chris

[jrpxxii]

Sign me up.

[Driveshaftshop]

There seems to be a debate on a yoke VS a billet plate, here is our take on this. This is what was posted to a question about it on another Forum


those billet drive shaft couplers dont make vibrations???



No not at all, in fact the way the pins stick out of the trans and diff show just how straight it can be. The pins are ground with the bearing surfaces on the trans and diff (if you remove this pin for any reason and have a problem you cant go back to stock or our verified system) so its an exact center line. the billet plates are machined on center and the flanges mount at a larger diameter and pilot making it better than any u-bolt style yoke. We have recently done extensive testing with our new balancing machine with Roush/Fenway on a vibration problem NASCAR has been having. If you have ever seen a race team set up a rear end they use a ball mount that sits where the u-joint mounts to check the run out on The pinion yoke, all yokes have run out. They check them to make sure they are not beyond tolerance (and quite a few are) with the plate and flange we have been able to get a more concentric center line, in fact when we tooled up the new balancer (spins 9500rpm) we ended up using flanges instead of yokes because each time the yoke was taken off and remounted it was not with in tolerance for the balancer (centering on the splines). The flanges hold true no matter how many times they are re-mounted. Roush took a few flange samples with them to make pinion mounts for the flanges.....

This is a picture of another company's billet part, i'm not sure who's part is is but i see a few things that make it bad. The bum rap from most parts is a company not knowing what there doing and trying to make products with out understanding how to keep proper center lines. We 1st measured the thickness at 6-12-3-9 o'clock they have different measurements. the other thing i noticed is they are not turning the outer diameter, this is what you reference all measurements from and should be concentric. That one in the picture was supposed to be brand new also. there is so many banged up ends i would have been afraid to use it in the balancer (the reason it was sent in) our billet plates use longer bolts with a back up nut to ensure the bolt never comes loose. also the higest grade bolt is used to make sure a bolt will never break (or come loose) see the attached picture

i'm sure not all are done this way but it shows our commitment to part excellence and backed up by real world testing not just by being put in a car and claiming. Our shafts are balanced with the billet parts attached, Every CV shaft will have to use this type billet parts for the CV end so claiming its not good would be misleading to those who are unaware of how shafts mount. take a look at our billet mounts, there lighter and race proven for over 10 years in many record setting cars. (if you purchase one you will even see balance drill marks on the billet mounting plates)
dont go for the "never had a problem" we ensure you will not....






If there one thing my Dad who started this company in 1967 taught me was this, Learn how to do it correctly and then and only then see if it makes sense to sell it. If its not correct you will have the chance to make it right but never give up. We have spent the better part of this year looking at the problem most company's have with the carbon fiber bonding, almost every failure on carbon fiber shafts will be the bond, they say things like the glue got too hot and other excuses to mask the fact that the bond was not correct. We have done extensive research with the company that sells the tubing, 3 engineers from 3M and also engineers that produce the aluminum parts (along with our short 35 year stint of making parts). between all of us we have come up with a better profile in the tube and bond area that will exceed any traditional method of bonding today. We have even gone further than most to have this bond tested by a destructive testing lab and have confirmed this method to be superior to any bond type out there. take a look at one our many test shafts in the picture. The U-joint crosses broke before the Flange,bond or tube.....

so there you have it, fully balanced billet parts along with a better bond you decide.

[RS-SS2]

That's what I'm talking about. Great write up explained in detail. I am definitely looking forward to having your carbon fiber drive shaft on my car.

I know this was probably extreme testing but what actually caused the u joint to break on this particular test?

[Driveshaftshop]

The lab twists the shaft until it breaks, this was a joint rated by the manufacturer for 2600Ft lbs. it broke in the test at 3100Lbs