from a ls1 i just bought for 100 dollars or so... lasted like a month or so behind my 355. probably only 370 hp or so. i was at the atm, set the parking brake, forgot i left it in 1st, and let off the clutch... car lunged forward and this happened after. drive shaft fell out of the tranny. so this is at idle basically.

put the old stock steel one in to get it drivable, not too happy

 

Holy crap! Just letting the clutch out at idle did that?

 

yea, also bent my stock control arm on the driver side some, didn't think to take a pic.

 

wtf O_o thats crazy..

 

Thats nuts i have seen these driveshafts on rediculous modded cars and they stand up.

you have a driveshaft loop rubbing by chance? I know the steel loops can sometimes do a number on aluminum driveshafts...

 

Dang, that sucks. be happy you didnt side step the clutch....


I ended up buying a new DL from shaftmasters, it comes with a new yoke a h/d u-joints.

here a ebay link http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Camar...Q5fAccessories

 

Did you get the driveshaft from someone you dont know? I'd almost have to think that that driveshaft had already started twisting before this happened.

 

got it on ebay

no driveshaft loop, wish i had one though

seemed nice before this

 

Seeing how it is toast cut it in half and see how thich the wall of the shaft is. Was it "new" when you bought it?

 

Indeed but all it would take is a little dent or a deep scratch.

 

maybe I will look into a safety loop or make one.

 

this is what i bought, seemed perfect when i got it

ebay

 

I'd send him a pic. of the twisted driveshaft just for the heck of it. That is a scary situation. I saw on an episode of PINKS where a driveshaft came up through the floor. The driver was not injured, but just the thought of that happening.

 

Go to a real DS shop and get a quality steel or alum piece made for your car. You're obviously well above the thresh hold for stock parts

 

Most of the aluminum 4th gen shafts are thin-wall crap.

Enjoy upgrading to aftermarket; you're safer for it.

 

i would venture a guess that the control arms failed first, then the driveshaft bent then was destroyed because of the misalignment.

 

dang, beat me to it...
thats absolutely what happened.
a control arm was bent and the rear end was not perpendicular to the driveshaft.
as a result the DS was being pulled at an angle.

you would be amazed at how much stress a small misalignment can cause on a rotating shaft...
and as twin_turbo said, all it would take is a slight dent, or deep scratch to severely weaken the driveshaft at any point.

 

Looks like more fun than my Al DS failure;

 

Hang it up on the wall in your garage

Scary though, makes me think about what could happen to mine

 

there's cardboard inside.

 

Yeah make sure you have correct driveline angle. The angle could still be bad even if you replace the control Arm if it did cause it? Is this thing lowered? The pinion angle and driveshaft angle shouldn't be off more then 2* degrees or so, but double check those specs. If you lowered that thing and didn't check angles you can buy some mustered you'll need it, when you start twisting more pretzels. Or you’ll blow out ujoints quick. Good luck

 

How would misalignment affect a ds that bad?

The alignment changes (vertically) every time the rear end goes up or down, yet the ds don't fail. Why would left/right misalignment be so bad? I don't think it would. That is what the u-joints take care of.....misalignment, to a degree, as the suspension moves.

When I put my double adjustable LCAs on, I didn't get it right the first time. They weren't the same length, so my rear end was "crooked", but nothing happened. And I HAMMERED it. I guarantee you I was putting out more torque doing that, than he was at idle.

 

well, I think it would depend on how long his control arm was bent, and how severe, also, how good were his U joints, and how hard he dumped the clutch. not saying you're right or wrong, I don't know, just food for thought.

 

i wasnt there, so i cant say for sure, but i would imagine that the DS was probably already severely damaged when he let off the clutch at idle. that last little bit was what killed it.

steel will take a lot of torsion and stress before anything bad happens.
thin walled aluminum, not so much.
just for comparison:
1/2" dia bar of cold rolled steel vs a 1/2" bar of aluminum
clamp one end of the bar stationary and the other end to a clamp that twists around
draw a straight line down the bar for reference and start twisting
the steel bar looked like a candy cane before it broke. it twisted 6.6 times around. thats 2,380 degrees of twist

the aluminum bar could only take around 60 degrees of twist before it broke


the point is that steel is very ductile, whereas aluminum will bend, some, but not much before it fails.
aluminum also has no real proportional limit, so the point of failure happens very abruptly.

 

Judging by his pic, I'd say his aluminum ds made is more than 60 degrees. I can twist an aluminum can more than 60 degrees & not have it rip/tear/break.

You can make such a broad state of steel > aluminum & expect it to be 100% true. There are way too many different grades of steel & aluminum.

 

obviously. in his pic, the shaft experienced a ductile failure, ie. it bent.
with thin walled aluminum, this is usually what happens.

btw, i am talking about 60* of torsional displacement... candycane style

the comparison i made was to illustrate the huge difference in characteristics between steel and aluminum
and YES I CAN make a broad statement like that.
if you know anything about the material characteristics of steel vs aluminum, you know that the difference is HUGE

 

Wow, that's interesting to know! I have a stock 3rd gen aluminum shaft in my car, and I was considering "upgrading" to the 4th gen, LS1 unit b/c it's a bit bigger in diameter and just looks beefier. Maybe I'm better off sticking with the 3rd gen "1LE" shaft! I did put a Coleman brand aftermarket aluminum DS behind the 450 HP SBC in my 69 Camaro when I converted it to a TKO 5 speed, and it's held up great so far. Smooth as silk too vibration wise, even at 100 mph.

 

3rd gen and LT1 4th gens used the same aluminum DS

LS1 4th gens we a big bigger but the biggest advantage was the damper built into the yoke which canceled out the vast majority of the minor vibrations

All of them are roughly the same strength

 

Oh yeah, I'm well aware of the vibration dampener. That was another reason I was considering purchasing the LS1 shaft. Not to mention the end yokes are beefier and of course the slightly larger diameter of the tube itself.