Guys ive pretty much exhausted all of my local contacts. I need a machine shop that will shorten and respline a model A driveshaft. Recommendations? At this point its pretty obvious im going to have to ship it somewhere to have it done. Here locally, to keep it short, the shops that have the capability wont do it for whatever reason(I gotten several excuses," metals to hard"," I don't do automotive"," you wouldn't want to pay what id have to have"," we can make you a new one for 1600", etc.) and the shops that would do it didn't have the tooling or equipment for splines. Im almost to the point of dragging out the cutoff wheel and going after it. Please help
www.hotrodworks.com www.dutchmanaxles.com www.hudlowaxle.com/services/axles www.mitchelldifferential.com http://www.moserengineering.com
Rather than going through the trouble of cutting new splines, take the drive shaft to one of the better "BOAT" shops that do repairs & machine work on inboard/outboard rear drives. Their equipment is already set up for the tapered machine work necessary for the prop receivers that are on the drive assemblies. Your shaft is nearly the same diameter & taper as some of the marine units. It's even easier if you bring them the measurements or better yet - a sample to use The costs should be minimal and the work should be exceptional. Just for argument sake, I happened to have a damaged "junk" drive shaft with the threaded end completely mauled off by someone with a gear puller & a HUGE sledge hammer.... this was my donor measuring stick; I cut it in half and then slid the splined section up into the U' joint and took some rough measurements towards the center sections mounting face for the torque tubes flange. Next, I took the pinions tapered section and slid that into a junk pinion (same damaged rear end for the drive shaft) and then mounted the mocked up shortened drive shaft and pinion into the center section. I then measured the distance of the pinions portion of the cut in half drive shaft up to the back of the of the U' joint, and then compared the 2 measurements for a really accurate measurement of what the finished drive shaft would eventually need to be. I made several short rough cuts on the shaft and then when it was close enough for government work, I slipped 2 short sections of angle iron over the shortened drive shaft sections and then used hose clamps to keep things where they eventually needed to be. In the end, once I had mocked everything up and all the parts slipped together without any binding issues, I mig weled the 2 shortened sections of drive shaft together so I could work with a correct length but shortened drive shaft. This allowed be to fit things together, make adjustments to the rear end & spring mounts, I then knew exactly what was removed from the drive shaft and shortened the torque tube myself and installed it over the modified drive shaft. Looking back, at the time it seemed like a lot of unnecessary work - but - it all paid off when I took the sample drive shaft to a marine machine shop and told them I wanted the good one shortened & tapered to match my sample ! All the parts now fit between the T5 & the torque tube adapter & the Kiwi quick change hanging out the rear (the back of the frame) now I am moving on to the engines modifications and getting my 16" Kelsey's painted and the tires mounted. It was fun, it was easy..... Steve
Thanks for the links, I'll make some phone calls. [QUOTE="steve hackel, post: 11077129, member:Looking back, at the time it seemed like a lot of unnecessary work - but - it all paid off when I took the sample drive shaft to a marine machine shop and told them I wanted the good one shortened & tapered to match my sample ! All the parts now fit between the T5 & the torque tube adapter & the Kiwi quick change hanging out the rear (the back of the frame) now I am moving on to the engines modifications and getting my 16" Kelsey's painted and the tires mounted. It was fun, it was easy..... Steve[/QUOTE] Steve, the kiwi quick change requires the driveshaft be splined on both ends...that's what I'm currently doing and the reason for the driveshaft modification. How do you couple the quick change with a tapered end on the driveshaft.?
What are you putting in front of the driveshaft? In the old days I shortened axles by cutting them, doweling them, and welding them. A driveshaft has about 1/3 - 1/4 the torque applied. You can weld them and put a sleeve over the weld and weld it. Guaranteed!
I'm running a hot 4 banger. I have no issue with welding it. I've seen that done many times in my searches on the hamb. Issue is I need the driveshaft to be splined on both ends. Splines for the u-joint at trans and splines for the coupling at the quickchange.
Since you have past experience with welding these driveshafts and since I don't have a v8 driveshaft on hand. What are your thoughts on welding one of these tractor style shafts onto the stock shaft? Maybe using the female one and connecting straight to the quickchange or one of the male ones and still using the v8 coupler? How more traditional than tractor parts can you get,right?
most of the farm PTo adaptors I have seen are real loose on tolerances and slop around so they slide together easily if damaged or get goop in them and are often held together with pins thru them , another thing to try is a shop that deals with truck PTO shafts for the hydraulics pumps ( dump truck and tanker shops ) as they tend to run tight clearances and not be sloppy and there rated for up to 100 hp and are small in diameter
Oops....... I knew what I wanted to say, but things got turned around in my head - one of those senior moments that everyone will eventually experience themselves. My explanation above was for the first rear end that I converted to fit behind the T5 - tool much trans length and the torque tube needed to be shortened, and the above is what I did for that one. For the Kiwi quick change, I simply went to the Macs web site and ordered one of these http://www.macsautoparts.com/ford_m...-coupling-sleeve-6-spline-ford-passenger.html. Once I had this in hand, we (my NasCar engine builder buddy) slipped this over the nose of the quick change and went back to the front portion of the 1/2 drive shaft I still had from the 1st attempt in the stock A' center section I was running. (my donor shaft from the damaged rear end) Once we had an accurate length, my machinest friend turned down the end of the drive shaft to eventually be an even "pressed fit" into the front 1/2 splined section of the coupler. He then used a woodruff cutter and cut a 'single' keyway that would engage one of the couplers splined passages, similar to what a real axle & hub would look & fit like on any model A'. Lastly, he figured where the the parts would all come together and drilled one through hole for a roll pin, just in cast the keyway would shear, but that has never happened. When he was done, there was no run out, and this was a much tighter fit than the splines on the front end of the drive shaft going into the U'joint coupling at the back end of the trans. This required no re-splining of the drive shaft, the coupler was available and cheap when compared to machine work. Anyone with a small lathe and access to a Bridgeport for cutting the keyway, could easily do this operation an a few hours time. Again, my apologies for the confusion; my attempted explanation probably caused those who were trying to solve the issues with hooking up their drive shaft & quick change, just more confusion. In the end, it all worked out just fine.
OK. I think I got this...turned down the shaft to fit the inside diameter of the coupler(I've already acquired that coupler from macs) then cut the one keyway and used keystock that engages one of the coupler splines. In theory...I would think that if you can cut a keyway you should be able to cut splines...this I may can try at home. I've got some machining equipment, my father-in-law used to be supplier for machine shops...I'm just not versed in using it. Only done small parts...real small parts like speedometer parts. May be a good time to learn. or get a couple spare shafts coming
A keyway is different than a spline, as there are compound angles involved with the splines/entry/taper etc, and the keyway is only a single groove that is cut into the shaft @ 90 degrees to the centerline and the key stock has no bevels as do splines. Measure up the splines in your coupler, then find a hardware store that has keys for implements of lawnmowers that are the same width. Find a piece of aluminum rod and then try machining the sample to accept the key stock to work with the coupler. There is a lot of surface area on a piece of aluminum rod, and you can practice with that until you get the hang of things for your drive shaft. The woodruff cutter can be bought at McMaster Carr or even on E-bay, but get your size correct, and then deal with finding the center line of the shaft when its mounted in the Bridgeport and then make your practice cuts. If its not in the center of the shaft, then the coupler will bind at entry and the sides of the keyway will not line up parallel & perpendicular with the side of the couplers splines - think of trying to put a socket and a ratchet together and they keep binding, until you get them lined up and then it all slips together without any effort. And if not, get a bigger hammer
The splines measure .275 and the closest keystock I can find is 1/4. does this sound familiar at all from when you guys did it? I have the same coupler you used I believe. If the shaft will fit my lathe ,I think with some patience and/or some welding maybe I can pull it off. Thanks for at least giving me hope
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