Strong C.V/Drive shafts and Big Clutch options?

valvebounce · PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:30 pm

The companion flanges I was all set to buy were from an S12, and they didn't fit my 510 axle splines. But I've found another pair just have to wait untill after Xmas to get them. I'm pretty much copying datsunboy's set up. (He's a mate of mine) And my axles were done by the same guy who did his.

Dave · PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:39 pm

I Like Drift wrote:

and dave, you now have a lathe!! so when does R&D on adapters start?

Started

My plan is to get a few lumps of steel plate, cut roughly into circles, mill a slight recess into one side that fits neatly over the rectangular inner flange on the companion flange, get it welded up, then machine it to whatever size and "stud pattern" (ie 5x1, 3x2, whatever) is needed. Similar to the pics Martin posted.

Repeat the process for the inboard flange.

Get a set of suitable donors CV's and shafts, dismantle, cut shaft to length and cut new splines on cut end.

Assemble and use.

Easy, heh

I'm leaning towards using commodore shafts and CV's. They look a decent size and should be readily available (and hopefully cheap). They are also similar to the Porsche 930 style of CV that the Wolf Creek setup ones uses. Oh, and I have easy access to a set for R&D purposes - jusr rip a driveshaft out of the family car

Boyracer · PostPosted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 12:46 pm

Not sure about the welding. Because it's a rectangular shape and thus not in a constant line of stress, it'll probably be fine. An engineer I used to work with was very big on the structural steel code, he claimed that a welded structure had much lower allowable stresses to that of a bolted structure. If the adaptor was bolted to the existing drive flange, there's the option to spigot it to the inside (nice little machined recess in there) and the 4 bolts that have lasted till now, continue to do the work. I'm yet to hear of anyone snapping those bolts. Bolted will solve some of the heat distortion issues that you're going to face when you weld the flange up. You've got access to a lathe, so I guess you can put it up an skim the face again, for others perhaps not so easy. Also allows you to replace the adaptor, should you hve any problem with the existing drive flange/shaft.So far in this thread, I haven't seen anyone question the stub axle and it's torque capacity. Used to be that all the Zed owners bolting V8's in, were twisting the flange (with wheels studs) completely off the shaft.

Another thing while I'm

on. How big is the Commodore CV Dave ? There's not such a hell of a lot of room between the centreline of the driveshaft and the back of the arm, or at least to the ridge that's on the back of the arm.

Dave · PostPosted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 9:22 am

I was a bit concerned about the welding alone, which is why I planned on

Dave wrote:

mill a slight recess into one side that fits neatly over the rectangular inner flange on the companion flange

I guess there's not a lot of difference between using a weld to hold it on, or using bolts, if the recess is machined accurately.

I'll have to measure the commodore shafts to see what size they are. All I know is that they look noticeably "big" under the car. I assumed they would be plenty strong enough as they can cope with the V8 power in some commodores (assuming that all commodore driveshafts are the same regardless of what motor is fitted

).

Interesting about the Zed reference. There was a bloke on one of the Zed forums designing a new axle assembly, incorporating stronger axle and a custom made inner flange. This would be ideal, but I would imagine it would be difficult / expensive to get the splines cut on the inside of the new companion flange. I hope to be able to re-cut the splines on the shortened shaft in the lathe, but I would imagine you'd need to use a broach to do the inner splines ?

valvebounce · PostPosted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 8:38 pm

Not if your very patient and thorough. My old man cut internal splines using the saddle of a lathe once but it took ages!

Dave · PostPosted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 9:24 pm

You'd want to be VERY patient.

I cut a new keyway in a crank pulley the other day using the lathe, took me forever winding the saddle back and forth

. Then I ended up chucking the crank pulley away because I stuffed up in my measurements

. Keyway was perfect though

But then again, I suppose a spline isn't as big / deep as a keyway.

I've spent ages last week trying to work out how to set the lathe up for re-splining the cut end of the driveshaft - trying to work out how to accuratey get the correct number of splines arranged evenly around the shaft. Found a few sites showing how to make an indexing arrangement using change gears from the lathe, then worked out exactly how I could do it with what I had. Thought I was pretty clever

Then I realised there's a perfectly good spline on the opposite (uncut) end of the shaft that I could use to work from

And commodore driveshafts are around 28.27mm diameter. Not sure how big the CV's themselves are - its dark and I measured the driveshafts by "feel", but couldn't get the calipers in around the CV without being able to see it.

valvebounce · PostPosted: Tue Dec 23, 2008 6:58 am

The old man fitted a 360 degree protractor thing to the rear end of the lathe spindle, and used a magnifying glass to see exactly how far he'd rotated the spindle each time. He made an adapter which went over the input shaft of an old citroen transaxle gearbox, and the other end went into the clutch of a 351c. (A bloke he knew was building a kitset DeTomasio Pantera) The internal splines were a fair way into the adapter too, which made it even trickier. Took him all weekend to do it.

Anth510 · PostPosted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 11:02 am

lots of good info in this thread (even though i cant understand most of it)

has anyone got any updates? no use buying anything from the US with how the dollar is at the moment...we need a home grown solution!

256fqq · PostPosted: Wed Feb 18, 2009 9:23 pm

if anyone has flanges to measure...if possible to post some measurments

spline dia for :
5x1 flange
3x2 flange

thanks

Myaz · PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:07 am

following the general direction of this thread.. my CV joint is clicking in my exa when i accelerate hard or turn a corner. any ideas on a price anyone? id rather not drive it into the ground

Stoney · PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:04 am

check ebay, i saw someone selling CV's for nissans on there not long ago, for around $100 a side new

Myaz · PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:49 am

thanks stoney, a pair will cost $220 plus 55 in postage. better than breaking i spose

Anth510 · PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:03 pm

have you guys seen this?

http://www.the510realm.com/phpBB3/viewt ... =2&t=10917

Myaz · PostPosted: Thu Feb 19, 2009 12:09 pm

now i have

looks to be very helpful

Boyracer · PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:45 pm

Few things in there that look a little weird, but overall doesn't look like a bad deal. I'd read somewhere about the VW being a relatively "weak" joint, apparently the BMW CV joint is meant to be a little better without going to the additional cost of the Porsche 930 CV's.

Strong C.V/Drive shafts and Big Clutch options?

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