One Piece Drive Shaft? experiences?

[Ranma]

Well Carl is into drifting and it destroys cars. I have oh 35 years of driving experience in all type of cars and can not remember having the u joints of any of my cars go out. This includes some high millage "heart breaks of America". My Fire Chicken had 220,000 miles on it when I finally sold it. I bought it new and one of my fondest memories is the slight of it driving toward Mexico.
As for restoring my Mk III, it is costing me a lot of money. It was not a question of replacing pieces of it but entire systems. Replaced the exhaust system from the head to the diffuser. Rebuilt the engine block, replaced the steering, replaced the drive shaft, rebuilt the differential and axles. The little jerk had overheated the engine cracking the head and blew out the cat. That destroyed the exhaust. After I am done will be a sweat ride *grins* He is in the pain barn and we found new trim pieces.
My point is it is better to spend a little extra upfront to avoid paying over and over.

[carl johansson]

ranma,
I take offense to your characterization of me, and your suppositions .

I do not drift any cars. not my bag. I do though race cars, in my opinion the most noble thing you can do with a car. if i wanted to never break a car, I would put it in my living room and polish it up every day, and never drive it. Instead I choose to use my supras, we have 3 of them right now, all 3 were rescued from the car crusher, 2 are now running race cars, the 3rd is used for a parts car. i do usev my cars and trucks as tools, They are for me to have fun in, as well as for me to use for work.
breaking a car is not destroying it, all cars ever built break down and require replacement parts!

I drive over 50K miles per year, 20 K of that in a toyota 4runner decked out for 4 wheeling - which for me is not a hobby, but a tool, as i spend 4 months of the year surveying abandoned mines here in the west. That requires many miles of offroad driving - not for fun! If that vehicle breaks I'm in for 20 - 50 miles of hiking to get out, unless I find help. So I do know how to maintain my vehicles, and get the most out of them. There are not alot of other people who can claim 135 hours of road racing without a single breakdown! We can!


I am glad you hasve never had Ujoints go out - congratulations - that must be some sort of record! QUOTE=Ranma;98485]Well Carl is into drifting and it destroys cars. I have oh 35 years of driving experience in all type of cars and can not remember having the u joints of any of my cars go out. This includes some high millage "heart breaks of America". My Fire Chicken had 220,000 miles on it when I finally sold it. I bought it new and one of my fondest memories is the slight of it driving toward Mexico.
As for restoring my Mk III, it is costing me a lot of money. It was not a question of replacing pieces of it but entire systems. Replaced the exhaust system from the head to the diffuser. Rebuilt the engine block, replaced the steering, replaced the drive shaft, rebuilt the differential and axles. The little jerk had overheated the engine cracking the head and blew out the cat. That destroyed the exhaust. After I am done will be a sweat ride *grins* He is in the pain barn and we found new trim pieces.
My point is it is better to spend a little extra upfront to avoid paying over and over.

[/QUOTE]

[Ranma]

Originally Posted by carl johansson

ranma,
I take offense to your characterization of me, and your suppositions .

[/QUOTE]
I hear you and please accept my apologies, did not mean to offend. We have a lots of kids near me who drift in the streets and vacant parking lots. It gets on my nerves... Anyhow please forgive my assumptions.

Originally Posted by carl johansson

I do not drift any cars. not my bag. I do though race cars, in my opinion the most noble thing you can do with a car. if i wanted to never break a car, I would put it in my living room and polish it up every day, and never drive it. Instead I choose to use my supras, we have 3 of them right now, all 3 were rescued from the car crusher, 2 are now running race cars, the 3rd is used for a parts car. i do usev my cars and trucks as tools, They are for me to have fun in, as well as for me to use for work.
breaking a car is not destroying it, all cars ever built break down and require replacement parts!

[/QUOTE]

So how would a one piece drive shaft help you? Mine had a vibration starting at 55 mph and getting worse with speed. The vibration was making the fillings lose in my mouth. We tried everything to rid ourselves of it. Decided to ditch the ford drive shaft and rebuild everything aft of it. My guy runs like a champ now *grins* Drive train is smoother than my 09 daily.
I do agree with you, cars are meant to be driven, not driving them is worse then driving. So tell me more about your racing. What type is racing is a Supra good at? Would love to top end mine at a track You are right cars are meant to be driven.

[ochowdero]

toyota went to a 2 peice because it reduced noise and vibration at higher speeds..
the reason why theres so much noise and vibration is because theres a driveshaft length limit until it starts to rotate alil more oblong then usual..
(drive shaft, 2 piece or not, rotate in a oval shape not a true circle) you have 68" around 60-68" you should switch to a 2 peice just to reduce vibration and have a lil more smoother drive.. sadly this takes away torque... there is no problem with a one peice tho

[worm611]

http://shaftmasters.com/toyota-supra...iveshaft3.html

Read some posts on forums about guys running this shaft, I purchased one, but did not install it yet, quality looks great!

[87hilux7mge]

nor do i destroy vehicles just to do it. i have saved more 3rd gen camaros and toyota pickups from the rust pile than i can count.

but in the same note, i do drive my vehicles, and hard (no i dont drift. wouldnt mind trying, but there are tracks for that).

i try and build everything so it will last as long as possible and dont cut corners. hence why ive been taking so long building the motor for my pickup right now. i have literally taken apart, cleaned, reconditioned and reassembled EVERY nut, bolt and part on this motor. why? cuz i dont want to have to do it again any time soon. this goes the same for the rest of the drivetrain, body, interior etc.

neway. i can understand you being upset kids terrorizing the neighborhood. we have the honda-heads here in spokane driving like retards all the time.

[Ranma]

Originally Posted by 87hilux7mge

nor do i destroy vehicles just to do it. i have saved more 3rd gen camaros and toyota pickups from the rust pile than i can count.

but in the same note, i do drive my vehicles, and hard (no i dont drift. wouldnt mind trying, but there are tracks for that).

i try and build everything so it will last as long as possible and dont cut corners. hence why ive been taking so long building the motor for my pickup right now. i have literally taken apart, cleaned, reconditioned and reassembled EVERY nut, bolt and part on this motor. why? cuz i dont want to have to do it again any time soon. this goes the same for the rest of the drivetrain, body, interior etc.

neway. i can understand you being upset kids terrorizing the neighborhood. we have the honda-heads here in spokane driving like retards all the time.

Problem with a single piece drive shaft is the vibration. Like airplanes vibration is a destructive force. There are cases of airliners falling apart in flight from harmonic vibrations. My guy started at 55 and by 75 was loosing the fillings on my teeth. Now Carol what sort of racing do you do? The vibration must be hell over 100. At a certain point the vibration will overcome any advantages. Now if you want one piece the Government Motors Camaros and Fire Chickens have them.

[87hilux7mge]

Originally Posted by Ranma

Problem with a single piece drive shaft is the vibration. Like airplanes vibration is a destructive force. There are cases of airliners falling apart in flight from harmonic vibrations. My guy started at 55 and by 75 was loosing the fillings on my teeth. Now Carol what sort of racing do you do? The vibration must be hell over 100. At a certain point the vibration will overcome any advantages. Now if you want one piece the Government Motors Camaros and Fire Chickens have them.

he races 24 hour lemons. kinda like circle track but not that fast. you get 500 bux (correct me if im wrong) to buy a vehicle (usually a beater) that will compete in a race for 24 hours straight. the idea is too complete the most laps in 24 hours. for some, its just to finish the race.

i doubt there are many speeds getting up over 100, but as long as the driveshaft is balanced, there will be no problem with vibration. yes harmonics do destroy things, but not if proper balance i achieved. a driveshaft is just spinning. an engine is more complicated than that because its not just something rotating, it has parts that are linear and there are explosions going off milliseconds from eachother. these all create harmonic vibrations, and that is why there are damper pulleys as well as manufacturers trying to balance engines to a certain degree (aftermarket balancing is almost always better, more precise, etc)

for him, a 2 piece driveshaft would be a more logical choice, as i puts more power to the ground and eases his maintenance on the car. Lemons is a budget type racing event.

[carl johansson]

I'm not sure what would be the issue causing this vibration many of you speak of. Most vehicles have one piece drive shafts, and do not suffer from excessive vibration, so I am wondering what is it specifically that makes the Supra more prone to vibratioin, so much so that engineers went to a 2 piece drive shaft to reduce the vibration - which in actuality would not eliminate the source of the vibration, just mask it.

So I guess I am, looking for more than -" well it vibrates more!"

We have no problem with the 2 piece, other than excessive maintanence costs, and more "complexity" which typically ends up being less reliable.

We never plan on changing a drive shaft or U joints at a race, but you never know - and seeing as how you spend alot of money to prep a car, and alot more money to get to the race, once you are there, you want to maximize your racing dollar. Our primary goal is always to finish the 15 - 18 hours of racing - still running! (even though this is "cheap racing" a weekend of racing costs us about 2500 bucks, entry, tires 75 - 100 gallons of fuel , hotels etc, not including transportation to and from the track, and not including the car prep, which typically is 2 - 3 K after all of the safety stuff you have to have, and all of the systems you have to repair)
So we figure if we went with a 1 piece, it would change out easier in an emergency, the Ujoints could be changed in 15 minutes at the track, instead of finding someone to press those things out and screw with the carrier bearing!

I plan on having the one piece professionally built, and balanced, Don't know if that would eliminate some of the "vibrations" many of you speak of.

Anyone know or have an idea why the one piece is creating the reported vibrations (other than a misfit drive shaft, bad ujoints, or incorrect installation?

Rana, Google up 24 hours of LeMons to see the kind of racing we do!
in our opinion the supra is pretty well suited for this race series!

87 hilux, just saw your response - most is accurate, but the races are on road tracks, so 2 - 3.5 miles long, left, right, up down, we run on some of the best tracks in the country. We will be running at Infineon in 2 weeks, same course as the NasCar boys, with some added pieces those nascar guys whine about (so no carousel for them - cause they wear ballerina tutus!)
we often hit speeds of 120 - 130 at the end of the longest straights, followed by panic breaking down to 35 mph to make the next corner. We shift 20 - 35 times per lap, so you better know how to heal and toe!

Good place to learn to become a road racer, great place to have fun!

Carl Johansson

[Ranma]

Well Carl,

When I first bought my Supra brought him down to the toyota dealer. The U joints in him were bad, so sent the drive shaft down to the shop. So the U joints were changed in a professional shop and it was balanced. Well that did not eliminate the vibrations. Sent it back to the shop while replacing an axle and rebuilding the differential and the other axle. Put it back tougher and still had the vibration. At this time "genius" realized it was the drive shaft when I saw Ford on it. Got a replacement 2 piece, sent it to the shop. Put him back tougher and the drive is as smooth as smooth itself.
What you do does sound like fun, but not sure if I could take the g forces on the sharp turns. Do be careful Carl and enjoy your racing time You are right a sitting car is so much decoration.