you guys ever fling a driveshaft while driving down the road??

got a call from a friend to come tow him home,chucked out the driveshaft on his old dodge motorhome.got there and found that the shaft whipped around and ripped a largehole in the mostly full poop tank!now it takes a long time to fill that tank when you are the only one pooping in it! needless to say it was ripe.he wanted me to crawl under and unbolt the rear u-joint to remove the very bent and smelly driveshaft.wasnt THAT good a friend.did get him home though.......

 

Took one out in my Pontiac in '70 at about 75-80 mph. Busted the transmission in half, big car Muncie 4 speed, exploded the bellhousing and took a chunk of the floor apart too. The vibration and the force popped the glove box open. Oh yeah, forgot, tore the center of the clutch disc out too.

 

p.s. Eugene if youre reading this it was Jerry-and he is getting enough fiber

 

Boy does this bring back memories. Many years ago I had a '70 Duster, 340 & 4 speed, both of which I'd rebuilt. Was street racing against my buddies '66 Mustang. Coming away from the light I banged second at 6500 rpm. Something went WHAM and nearly shat meself. Thought I'd blown the motor till I realized it was still running, then thought it was the tranny. Turned out the weld broke between the driveshaft tube and rear u joint mount. I'm not sure which was more painful, trying to find another driveshaft or hearing the firemen at the fire station across the street laughing their asses off at me.

 

Dropped the one out of my 4spd BBC '66 Nova. It was an ex-bracket car, should have had a driveshaft loop already but for some reason, didn't. I didn't think it was important for a street car. Did a smoke show for my buds one night and I guess it caught traction just enough to pop the rear U-joint. Ordered a driveshaft loop kit and new U-joints from Super Shops the next day, LOL.

Few years ago some dude passed me on I-285 hauling ass in a real beat Mustang II, the car was visibly shaking like it had a tire outta balance real bad. He got lost in the traffic ahead when this huge cloud of dust / smoke and shit went up and cars started swerving all over. I thought a truck blew a tire or something.

When I caught up the Mustang was sitting kinda half in the emergency lane, backwards, with the rear axle kinda sitting at an angle and the bent driveshaft sticking out from under the passenger side. Sucked to be that dude, that day.

 

In high school I had a 62 Nova that I put a SBC in. I blew the engine, and a buddy decided he wanted the car more than I did, so it was sold. John put a pretty stout SBC in it, and decided that the car would look better with the rear end jacked up, and put a set of air shocks on it. I had set the car up with a set of slapper style traction bars In the haste to get the car back on the street no one had backed off the traction bars. John pulled the car out on the street to see how it would hook up, dropped the clutch and there was a tremendous bang, and the car jumped up in the air about 2 feet. The pumpkin ripped right out of the front of the rear, it and the driveshaft ended up about 20 feet off the edge of the road. We think the combination of traction bars and air shocks had screwed up the pinion angle, and caused the failure.

 

LOL, that's got to be the best story yet! Don't blame you at all!

 

I have never done it myself yet. However I grew up overseas and had a '91 Camaro RS which is a really rare car in those lands. You also couldn't get parts their. So I dorve it around all shakey with fucked up u-joints. I eventually sold it to a shop that was going to completely rebuild it. They had the money to ship in parts I didn't.

I was also watching Pinks All Out a while ago. There was a guy with a Cevelle or something rolled up. The guy smoked the hides and then bank the shaft when through the floor boards and almost ripped the guys arm off. If his arms were a few inches over he would have lost his arm. After I saw that I thought to myslef... "every car I build now will have a loop".

 

So, who wants to claim the one I hit???? Took me 6 weeks to put that car back together! Watch out I am about to go off topic....I think I found the very last available oil pan for a 1985 Corvette! Turns out is the lowest point anywhere on the car....

 

Nope only poorly hung exhaust peices .......A few times ,Even got a ticket for altered exhaust .

 

Young and stupid I had a saved for months for a built 9" rear to match the healthy 406 motor in a 78 Malibu I had. Installed one Saturday and got to the last u-bolt nut. I felt it strip but hey there was 3 good nuts holding right. I'll just cruise tonight and fix it Monday. About 3 AM I couldn't help myself and finally let it rip on a dead highway. Just as as about to let off well into high gear (110MPH ish) I hear a bang bang under the car and the night sky light up behind me with sparks.

Moral of the story. $2.00 u-bolt and one more missed weekend of cruising after 6 months is not worth, billet pinion yoke, custom driveshaft, billet slip yoke, floor pan, exhaust system, transmission housing, and 6 more months of not getting to drive it cost me.

 

I detonated the front yoke hitting second gear at the strip once when racing my Chevy II. It made a friggin mess.

 

'72 Scout II. Torquey 345, limited slip. Spinning the wheels on some gravel, hooked when I hit pavement, twisted the drive shaft off about 8" behind the transfer case. Beat a hole in both of my brand new mufflers.

Unbolted the pieces of the drive shaft and drove on the front axle for a couple days while getting new drive shaft built.

Real loud for a while until I saved enough for new (again) mufflers.

 

it happened to me driving a jeep way way too fast, snapped the ujoint at the rear and slipped out of the x case. it was scary how fast it happened no sound then BAM. picked the shaft off the ground put it in 4 wheel and drove like 20 the whole way.

 

So, I lost my blown driveshaft virginity today. Blew it out of my '56 Ford on the way to work today. IN my only means of transportation. Luckily I have guys like rocket8 and Alex to help me out through it all. Thanks guys!

I just got off the freeway and excelerated at a stop sign to merge into traffic and at about 1,500 RPM my rear U-Joint broke!

 

^^Better late than never.

 

Hahahaha

 

Yep! With a torquey Nova I once owned...