Author Topic: Longer front driveline: Square tubing shafts, or extend the original? (Read 11407 times)

Yota Up · « **on:** Jan 23, 2007, 09:54:18 PM »

My driveshaft is too short for the flex of the front.
I have two choices.

I have 2 square tubes that fit into each other, and can cut and put those on.
Or - I can have the original extended.

What do you think?

The square will be tought, but so much heavier.
Having someone extend my original may cost me money.

?

wombat · « **Reply #1 on:** Jan 23, 2007, 10:26:14 PM »

If your gonna do it, I say doit right, either have your original one extended or get a new one made.

RRMike · « **Reply #2 on:** Jan 23, 2007, 10:29:29 PM »

Extending your front won't help if you have good flex. If you make it long enough to not come apart at max droop it will bottom out on compression. That's why they have long slip kits.

Mine is square and I love it.

boggerunner · « **Reply #3 on:** Jan 23, 2007, 10:32:49 PM »

go with the square, i extended mine for duals, and it fell apart alot, and for the triples, im building a square one.

Birfailed · « **Reply #4 on:** Jan 23, 2007, 10:35:07 PM »

And you can keep your left over square stock for spares

toynorcal · « **Reply #5 on:** Jan 24, 2007, 04:56:22 AM »

You probably already considered this, but its worth mentioning that you want your tube stock to fit as tight as possible. Hitch and reciever tube seems to be the most popular for square shafts.

Boheefus · « **Reply #6 on:** Jan 24, 2007, 07:21:56 AM »

I have tom woods drive shafts w/CVs in mine that are about to get shortened/lengthened, I will be running some spares that are already cut till then...lots of people run square and love it. Mine is a DD, and I am not a big fan of clanking, so I don't see it for me, but its all opinion anyway:D

FIREBALL · « **Reply #7 on:** Jan 24, 2007, 09:34:52 AM »

My truck was a daily driver too, unless you are driving in 4wd all the time a square front shaft isn't a problem. I didn't get any vibration out of mine in 4wd until 45mph. Like RRMike said, extending your stock shaft isn't going to help and long spline shafts are very expensive. If you can afford the long travel one then go for it. I had one made, then about 2 months later decided to move my front end forward an 1 1/2". After that my new long travel shaft would fall apart. I ended up putting my square on back in. The square shafts are heavy, but it never seemed to cause any problem and they are much more durable than the thinner walled round shafts.

Boheefus · « **Reply #8 on:** Jan 24, 2007, 10:14:01 AM »

Quote from: FIREBALL on Jan 24, 2007, 09:34:52 AM

My truck was a daily driver too, unless you are driving in 4wd all the time a square front shaft isn't a problem. I didn't get any vibration out of mine in 4wd until 45mph. Like RRMike said, extending your stock shaft isn't going to help and long spline shafts are very expensive. If you can afford the long travel one then go for it. I had one made, then about 2 months later decided to move my front end forward an 1 1/2". After that my new long travel shaft would fall apart. I ended up putting my square on back in. The square shafts are heavy, but it never seemed to cause any problem and they are much more durable than the thinner walled round shafts.

interestin...I always figured they would make noise just hittin bumps and such...perhaps I shoudl re-examine the idear..

FIREBALL · « **Reply #9 on:** Jan 24, 2007, 05:49:47 PM »

No, if you build it snug, like it should be anyway, then it doesn't make any noise in 2wd and if it's a good fit it won't even make noise in 4wd.

Birfailed · « **Reply #10 on:** Jan 24, 2007, 06:09:35 PM »

I guess you would just have to grease the hell out of it all the time huh? And maybe grind and de-burr the end of the tube comin off your pinion end huh. I never thought about it much, I grabbed some John Deere PTO shafts, cut em to length and never looked back.

Stillcrawlin 82 · « **Reply #11 on:** Jan 25, 2007, 12:32:17 AM »

Go square I went long travel and every time springs fully drooped
it seperated so I built one cost me about $35 and a couple of hrs time. Was
a little clanky so I put the smallest zerks I could find 1 on each side
"haven't broke one off yet" and no more clank.
Used Toymachines tech article

http://www.ee.nmt.edu/~offroad/tech/index.php/Square_Driveshaft

wombat · « **Reply #12 on:** Jan 25, 2007, 03:47:06 AM »

out of all the people I have talked to you are the only guys to speak of making square drive shafts... must be a west coast thing.

NaturalDisaster · « **Reply #13 on:** Jan 25, 2007, 04:06:30 AM »

another thing you can do to stop the clanking is to just put a couple welds on the outside of the smaller piece of square stock and grind it down till it fits nice and tight then grease it and that will quiet them up good

Willy Mammoth · « **Reply #14 on:** Jan 25, 2007, 04:36:11 AM »

I also have a square front shaft and love it.

I have lots of battle scars in the shaft that would have taken out a round tube and still can run up to 60 mph in 4wd with only a little oscillation coming from the front shaft.

The only time it clanks is when in 2wd with the hubs locked in.

FIREBALL · « **Reply #15 on:** Jan 25, 2007, 09:41:19 PM »

ND, that's exactly what I did. I ran beads down either side of each inside corner, then came back and ground them til it had snug but free moving fit. Then I greased the snot out of it and called it good. I think I only regreased it a couple of times in several years of wheelin. (got kinda lazy)

RAZOR · « **Reply #16 on:** Jan 26, 2007, 09:25:55 AM »

Get some Tractor Splines and be done. I ordered mine from custom drivelines out of california. I got awesome over the phone service. Here is there website- http://www.customdrivelines.com/index.html

And here is the link to my similar question and thread- http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=28350.msg338543#msg338543

Good Luck!

Yota Up · « **Reply #17 on:** Jan 27, 2007, 09:01:50 PM »

Thanks for all that.

Hey Stillcrawlin - could you fix that link or something - won't work...?

Thanks again.

91 super yoda · « **Reply #18 on:** Jan 28, 2007, 08:56:48 PM »

its hip to be square

mjos · « **Reply #19 on:** Jan 29, 2007, 06:38:02 AM »

I'm running the square one I made too. Go for it.

46&2 · « **Reply #20 on:** Jan 29, 2007, 07:49:58 AM »

I was in a similar predicament as you are. I lifted my truck but I cant afford to go duals until this summer. I dont want to lose my ability to wheel so I made a square driveline out of my origional stocker to get me by. It has tons of slip and will work great as a spare later on when I install my duals and buy new front and rear drivelines. I just didnt want to waste mad cash on a custom front driveline only to have to get rid of it 6 months down the road. I havnt run it yet (getting new 5.29s up front on weds) but I think I will be pleased. I know a lot of people who have ran them for years and never complained so that was good enough for me.

Stillcrawlin 82 · « **Reply #21 on:** Jan 29, 2007, 05:28:35 PM »

Yota UP, sorry about the link seems to have vanished
I sent info to your email. Let me no if you recieved it.
Go square,I tryed NDs suggestion and now no clank at all
Thanks ND

abriel68 · « **Reply #22 on:** Mar 26, 2007, 11:01:28 PM »

do you have to extend the rear drive shaft at all...?? if you have a 7 inch lift on an 84 4runner?

46&2 · « **Reply #23 on:** Mar 27, 2007, 01:57:26 AM »

I lifted the rear of my 4runner with 63 inch chevy springs w/ the stock chevy shackle dualed up with a 6 inch shackle (about 5 inches of lift on my 4runner). my rear driveline still worked perfectly, no problems. my front shaft was about an inch too short (it still hooked up but came apart with any flex) so i cut it up and replaced it with a square driveshaft with about 12 inches of slip

abriel68 · « **Reply #24 on:** Mar 27, 2007, 04:25:52 PM »

thanks alot...

Redbeard3261 · « **Reply #25 on:** Mar 27, 2007, 04:41:54 PM »

Need more info on square driveshaft, link above does not work

fatt_matt · « **Reply #26 on:** Mar 27, 2007, 05:44:40 PM »

that's a cool idea with the square drive shaft..

looking to see if i believe how the square drive shaft is.. i found this i found it pretty interesting

http://infohost.nmt.edu/~jscarbro/driveshaft.htm

NOT MINE!!!! i just found it..
and thought of sharing it!!!

MiniSimp · « **Reply #27 on:** Mar 27, 2007, 05:50:49 PM »

Do a search on here for HOW I BUILT MY SQUARE DRIVESHAFT

TurtleTappers91 · « **Reply #28 on:** Mar 27, 2007, 08:19:08 PM »

If I had it to do over, My shaft would be a square tube. I spent $500 at High Angle Driveline to get a front shaft built, and it vibrates and knocks like mad above 25 mph or so...

havik · « **Reply #29 on:** Mar 28, 2007, 09:53:52 AM »

iam doin my build soon and i plan on making a square shaft. what i cant decide on is to cv or not to cv. any suggestions?

Yota Up [OP]

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