Makeing a square drive shaft

[Mr.N]

Figure others out there might have the same issue I did when making a square drive shaft with Square Tube (ST)
How do you center it?

For my front I use a 2" ST with 0.25 wall that fit a 1.5" ST with just less than 0.25" wall. Ground the typical grove to fit.
The T-case end 2" end was an easy fit, just needed to cut the tube short and slip it on.
However the axle yoke short end 1.5" square tube was giving me issues. Finally I just cut the male part of the slip yoke off, about 1.5" above the splines and then cut the splines 3/4" of an inch from the start of the splines. Slipped this into the cut off yoke after grinding down the 4 sides at an angle so the square tube would fit. I left a good gap and welded it up with lots of rod.
It might be as nice as other, but it's something I could do in my garage.



I used a Ford 1330 yoke as it much faster / easier to remove a u-joint compared to other 1330 yokes. (The inside measurement between the ears are less on some)
The Yoke is also clearanced with a 4.5" grinder, as is the pinion yoke, to allow for more u-joint angle.

[sjracer]

i hate square driveshafts unless your only running mud. if it lands the vehicles weight on a rock, the square sides can break a pinion as it trys to roll on said rock. some folks here love 'em, so i forsee more posts saying 'they're great'. FWIW, you can build a round .180 wall or thicker front driveshaft with a long slip for only a little more than the square one. if it's a front, it probably wont need to be balanced and is less critical to get the alignment perfect. my front driveshaft has taken alot of abuse with no problems. long slips are un-necessary in the rear.

[Mr.N]

I've tried 8-9" slip yokes and they were not working for me, too short with my shackle reversal.

I don't think you've priced out parts recently, I looked around for a cheap long travel spline parts and it would've cost 4x the amount.
Prove me wrong and post a link to where you get your parts.

[Snocross 100]

I've ran mine 2 .25 and 2.5 .25 for 5 years now. No issues just not for high speed!

[sjracer]

Originally Posted by Mr.N

I've tried 8-9" slip yokes and they were not working for me, too short with my shackle reversal.

I don't think you've priced out parts recently, I looked around for a cheap long travel spline parts and it would've cost 4x the amount.
Prove me wrong and post a link to where you get your parts.

that's different because even with 14" of shock travel i've never had a problem with my 9" of slip, but you may have a short front driveshaft and that could be a part of the problem (short distance between transfer front output and front pinion yoke). doubler transfer cases help this out by increasing the distance between the two.

prices have gone up (fawkin-a) but this still isn't a bad price for 30" of slip:

http://www.driveshaftsuperstore.com/...and_spline.htm

or $150 for 10" of slip and a yoke aint bad.

fwiw: the bigger the yoke you can run the more driveshaft angle can be had.

still hate square driveshafts. got one sitting in my scrap pile when i thought that was the cheapest way to go. ended up spending the money anyway's and not having a problem since.