Take it to a drive shaft shop and have him cut out all the bad weld and reweld it in his lathe. After all aren't drive shafts welded
Take it to a driveshaft shop and have him cut out all of the bad weld. Then he can reweld it in his driveshaft welding machine. After all aren't all driveshafts welded?
Most drive shaft shops only have a fixture to grab onto a U joint yoke like modern shafts, and can not grab a round shaft end
Youre welcome. So far so good. This is an early shaft without the center bearing. I can’t see anyway this repair could fail.
Like 28phonebooth said, those splines are worn. When new, the teeth are the same size through out the length of the coupling. Chances are your pinion shaft is worn too. If so, it wont be long until the pin that locates the coupling to the pinion shears.
Sdroaster and 28phonebooth, Are you referring to my post? If so I didn’t see any evidence of chatter or scuff along the edges and surface of the pointed teeth. The pinion spline looks perfect. It may have been possible the wear happened when the original gear and pinion was in there. After flipping the splined driveshaft end and rewelding, the fit felt good and tight. Time will tell. Thanks for the input.
That's possible. It's also possible that the spline adaptor on the driveshaft is soft, causing it to wear faster than a hardened piece would. If you have the chance, get the hardness checked.
OK, Seems that the posts got mixed up as this is not my coupler: Here's are a couple of pictures of what I am dealing with: First the drive shaft when it was still "attached" to the coupler and pinion. It really wasn't attached as it would spin on the coupler. Below is a picture of my '35 hollow tube style drive shaft from the coupler/pinion end (lower) and another driveshaft coupler mounted to a solid driveshaft(upper) Finally a picture of the same two driveshafts showing the length difference with the point being when the weld let loose on the tubular driveshaft, part of the coupler was pushed into the tube. Hope this all helps. BTW--I have the tubular shaft at a drive shaft shop now undergoing an "evaluation" More to come on that. Thank you all for your help and interest!
The 10 spline couplers are a larger diameter than the 6 spline coupler. It looks like someone bored the inside of the 10 spline coupler (that the factory had welded to the driveshaft tube) and pressed in the 6 spline coupler. It doesn't even look like they welded it as I wouldn't think it could slide down like that if there was any kind of a weld bead there. That looks like it can be repaired.
Quick update: got my driveshaft back repaired. Shop did a nice job. He had the tools to properly line it up and check it out properly. He asked me how long ago was the broken shaft put together. When I told him at least 15 years ago, he was amazed as he noted that despite the fact the machine work was good, the welding was poorly done. Put the driveshaft back on, bolted the torque tube on and the apex of the radius rods fastened Saturday. Spring was spread and attached. Always a little tense doing this. Sunday decided to clean and adjust brakes to find a small dark spot on the right rear wheel cylinder. A pair of rear wheel cylinders on order. More to come. home built spreader. Brake fluid under the boot.
I'm glad you got the drive shaft fixed. Too bad about the brake cylinder. There always seems to be something. Fun with cars!
Four weeks to the day later I’m happy to say “On the road again”. Seemed like it took forever to far the driveshaft back from the shop (no complaint and happy they were able to take on repairing the driveshaft) and even longer for me to finish up all the bits and pieces of putting this all back together. Funny thing is when I stopped by a local garage that specializes in old cars to thank them for the referral to the driveshaft shop, the same flatbed and driver that delivered me home back then was dropping of an OT olds for repair. My trip today was short in distance but long on satisfaction. Need to drive a few more miles then re-torque the rear hub nuts. Now to remove the dust and give it a good cleaning!
Saw this and thought maybe you all can answer a simple question for me: what is the diameters of the splines? I have a custom made output shaft in a late 50s T10 that was shortened, a lot! Whoever made it removed reverse completely and cut the new output shaft with a 6-spline that is 1 3/8 od. If that matches the diameter of the old Ford 6-spline then I finally found out what coupler to get. The T10 was used in a slingshot style dragster many years ago. Shortened I guess to get the engine really close to the rear.
The Ford 6 spline at the universal and pinion appear to be 1 & 1/16 diameter. Old Ford transmission input shafts I believe are 1&3/8 but they are 10 spline. Stock 3 speed transmission output shaft appears to be 1&3/16
A beautiful little short story about drive shaft failure and repair. Well done sir. Entertaining and informative.