Is it possible to make a drive shaft at home? or is this just plain stupid? I mean take 2 shafts cut one end off and weld it to the other? I have a 8.8 rear and a 400 trans was thinking of making a drive shaft out of 2 others. I know I can't ballance it but I've seen lots of driveshafts with weights missing.
When we used to have 4-5 wrecking yards around our town I used to make my own. You will need a metal cutting band saw a lathe and a wirefeed or? Never had a problem, never needed ballancing. So yes it was done all the time, now it will cost $300-$400 at a drive line shop as apposed to one bill in the old dayz. JMO
I have made over 50 now, yet to have to have any balanced. Or rather I should say "shortened", not made.
It can be done. I made one once by using two driveshafts, one that was a nice tight fit inside the other. I cut one end off of each, slid one inside the other to the right length, then welded. It turned out OK, but was just a touch out of balance.
Not a big deal. Square cuts and carefull line up. I've also done many over the years and only screwed up twice. Genereally if you assemble correctly so there is no runout before you weld, the balance will be OK. .
Stay away from the tapered drive shafts, look for 2 that are the same diameter the hole lenght......................
Yeah I've made my own. It's best to use a lathe to cut off the old tube from the yoke and to cut a perfect end for the shaft to mate to the yoke... not impossible to do without a lathe but you'll get a nicer finished shaft if you have a lathe. My local driveline shop charges $90.00 to shorten and balance a used shaft. I had them re-tube the one going in my F100 and it cost $280.00.
Although I have a lathe, I have never used it to make a driveshaft, and I have yet had to balance one. Here is how I do it. I take a air cutoff tool and cut in the center of the weld on one end. Don't cut all the way through, just through the weld. Then knock off the end with a hammer. Then, cut the tube to the length I need. I have used both a chop saw and a band saw over the years. Then if you look at the end piece you will notice that it has the stub at helps center it. Then hammer it in. I set it on a nice flat surfice (mill table if short enough) and make sure I have them parrallel. Then measure the side distances as close as you can. Once your measurements are the same AND you are parallel, tack weld it in a few spots. Check parralel and lengths again. If it moved, correct it, if it didn't, weld it up. Check one last time after it cools. Then DRIVE. Worst case senrio, you have to get it balanced, but as I said, to date, I haven't had to in over 50 cars.
I do mine on a lathe, but the other methods mentioned here work, just remember to keep your U joints in plane.
A friend of mine told me about a guy he knew, that made a drive shaft out of some square tube he had, it was for a beach buggy, and it worked fine, not even balenced, and it must have been thrashed, and there was no great technology, just the eyecrometer and good judgement, or crazyness and getting away with it
I have a large pipe cutter, like a tubing cutter only bigger. Makes a nice square cut and then I do like Choppinstops does. Tom..
I ran square receiver tube shafts on my rockcrawler. 1/4 wall. you could slam the shafts on the rocks, hit the gas and the shaft would 'walk' the rig sideways. If you need yokes or tubing I have always gotten mine at rockforddriveline.com. Good people.
If your salvage yard has a decent selection ... A lot of the time ... you can find one the correct length and just buy a mechanic's U-Joint and make everything work. I had a 48 F-1 with a 283/4speed and a 57 Chevrolet driveshaft fit perfect. My 32 roadster has a stock ... never cut or messed with 1988 Corvette aluminum driveshaft ... fits perfect. Friend had a Model A coupe ( SBC & T-350 ) and the front driveshaft out of a mid 60's Chevrolet truck fit perfect. Pretty simple ... if they hang all the driveshafts up in one place ... which they do around here
I have made lots of them using a tubing cutter, cut thru the weld at the flange and clean the flange up so the shortened tube fits square. Make sure you retain the balance weight, and keep the flange and tube in the exact same alignment it was originally.
Made the one on my 53 when i went open drive line, will be making the one for the A when I get to that point..as 39 ford said..same way. I go to the junk yard and pull a nice one..bring it home and shorten it to my desired length and waaaala..drive shaft
the esiest way to make a good square cut is with a single wheel pipe cutter ---dont over tighten as you cut--they always cut square--always remember to tack in 4 places and go back and forth so weld dont pull to one side--also make sure yokes are lined up--i us an i beam to keep em lined up--ive done many --never had one vibrate
Do it..It will work. Just keep everything square....If it shakes then have it balanced, If it don't shake , the drive the shit out of it....
An "old timer" showed me how. All of the advice above was included......Except 2 things. 1.. The MOST important thing is the "phasing", and his trick was almost too easy. Lay the shaft down on the bench. Lay a piece of 1/2" key stock on both the yokes (about a foot long) 90 degrees to the tube.< form a cross + >. Sight down the length of the tube, adjust yoke until the key stock lines up exactly. Your eye will not lie. Any misalignment will show up easily. 2.. When welding the tube ALWAYS weld 360 deg. without stopping. This way the heat is evenly applied and will not distort the shaft. I have done many shafts this way at the track and in the shop on saturday morning..But i always end up taking them to the driveline shop on monday to have the balance checked ( something about spinning that thing @ 7800 rpm really wants me to have it balanced, LOL ) Only had to have weight added once.. Good luck Dave
If you watch a driveline shop, this is how they weld it in one pass with the shaft slowly turning and welder held in place.
I measured the run out on a stock shafts that had weights, typicaly 15 to 25 thou, I figure I can usually get a home made one closer than that, 5 to 10 thou is achievable, lose track of how many, never had a single one ballanced, if you clock the shaft and the needle does not swing violently then it won't need balancing.
are you changing the length or just need your shaft to have two different size/types of joints?, if its just two differnt joints then you just need what i call a crossover joint, goes from a ford to a chevy to make it easy.
Old thread but I just shortened one and I thought I'd mention a couple things that got left out. I needed to make a two piece into a one piece for my lengthened frame, uncovered engine S10 project. I cut out the center joint/slip joint. I cut out a two inch section, and cut about 3/4" out of that section parallel to the centerline. I compressed this now C shaped section and put it inside the two halves. Before this I drilled 4 holes in each of the two halves near where they would be joined. I lined up the joints and clamped the assembly in angle iron. Now this is the crucial part. I installed the shaft between the transfer case and rear axle. I mounted a dial indicator over the top as near the middle as I could get (had to avoid the angle iron, of course). I started to weld (MIG) and checked the out of round. If it got out of round in one direction I would weld more on the appropriate side of the joint and let the weld pull it the other direction as it cooled. When I got it within 15 thousandths I welded rosette welds into the aforementioned holes. When I was done I measured 12 thousandths out of round. I've made about 10 hollow tube shafts and this one came out the best. I have a 17x60 lathe that I bought since the last time I made a shaft but I didn't have a good way to hold both ends of this shaft so I used my old method of using the car itself as the lathe. Here is a link to the full story. http://engineconversions.org/showthread.php?p=454#post454
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