Shorten HalfShafts / Custom Half Shafts?

Max,


  I am looking into using a T-bird IRS in lieu of the RX7 IRS I have in my truck right now. I'm not completely sold on a T-Bird yet but it has some features that I do like. The T-Bird uses a real upper and lower A-Arm setup and the spindles have simple attachment points so building new arms looks pretty straight forward. The problem is my 49" wide RX7 IRS barely fits in my truck right now and from what I can tell the T-Bird is 62" wide. If I was going to move forward on the T-Bird rear end I would narrow it to 47-48" so I can finally get some breathing room for my wheels. So that leads me to the base question.


 


How do you go about shortening the half shafts on these CV type half shafts? The spline part of the axel is larger than the middle of the shaft so you can just have them trimmed and then re-splined. What do you think about the following options?


 


1. I have heard people that build dune buggys need to lengthen there half shafts so they just cut the shafts then sleeve them with DOM tube and weld them back up.


 


2. I have also seen people talk about getting the axel shafts out of straight vehicles that are large enough in diameter that they can be machined down then re-splined at the correct length for the application.


 


3. I have seen a dude ditch the CV axles all together and had an axel shop build him a custom half shaft with U joints on each end and a slip joint in the middle. He did that because he was always breaking the CVs on his RX-7 IRS and thought this would be stronger, but I have read that CVs are good to like 30 degrees, where as U joints are only good to 15 degrees. What do you think about this change over?


 


4. Lastly, I'm open to any suggestions you have.


 


Thanks for your time!


Miles


 

i dont know about sleeving them. if you are confident in your welds its worth a shot. i wouldnt go to u joints. cvs handle larger angles. look better too. custom shafts can be made, and any driveline shop should be able to do it. why not just swap to a different style arm on the rx7 setup you already have in there?

Finally found someone that list that they make custom splined half shaft sections. http://www.markwilliams.com/ sent them a quote request, will see what they say.   I have tried the local drive line shops, the same place I had my drive line modified when i swapped in the RX7 but they dont seem to be able to build custom splined sections. Is this task something that a drive line shop should typically be able to build? Should I try around a few more shops?   Miles

I use RCV performance for all of my axle needs. They are VERY reasonable and can do just about anything you need that is splined. The last set of custom CVs I had made were less than $300 for the pair.   Before you think about modifying any axle, you should understand more about them. An axle is essentially a torsion bar that is being used to drive the wheels. Would you ever think that you could cut and weld a torsion bar? No. Would it live if you did? For a short time, but it would break for sure, t's just a matter of time.    

thanks max, i need a set also made for my tbird irs.  Definately will look those guys up

This thread is exactly what i was lookin for. . .    I need my 300zx cv shafts shortened 2" each. .   So I looked up the RCV guys and sent em an email. . .   Thanks for the info Max. . .    -Josh

Well if anyone is looking to spend like DOUBLE the price that MAX said, they can go to TheDriveShaftShop. I think I paid like $650 and that included brand new EVERYTHING, with no cores. I told them how much longer they needed to be from stock, and sent me brand new ones.

Speaking from experience, DO NOT LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT THEY WILL CUT AND WELD YOUR SHAFTS BACK TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!

---------------------------------------------Originally posted by TOWNLOWSpeaking from experience, DO NOT LET ANYONE TELL YOU THAT THEY WILL CUT AND WELD YOUR SHAFTS BACK TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!---------------------------------------------WERD! 

I'm thinkin I'm gonna cut and weld my own shafts back together. . .   Jus cuz I'm that bad ass. . .          But jus for mock up      The have the RCV guys make me a set. .    -Josh