Making custom driveshafts

I know I'm a little late to the party but we would use the heat and quench method to straighten steel axle tubes. So it works.
Like someone said get it red hot and drop a wet rag on it ... add more until it cools to the touch.
But .001 on a driveshaft would be vibration free on a lathe spinning wide open.

My method of welding: one good tack, rotate and check with the dial indicator. Whack it at 180* to equal the first tack the tack it. Rotate and repeat until you have 4 tacks at 90*.
Burn her in. Never had one move.
 
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Lizooki said:
I know I'm a little late to the party but we would use the heat and quench method to straighten steel axle tubes. So it work.
Like someone said get it read and drop a wet rag on it ... add more until it cools to the touch.
But .001 on a driveshaft would be vibration free on a lathe spinning wide open.

My method of welding: one good tack, rotate and check with the dial indicator. Whack it at 180* to equal the first tack the tack it. Rotate and repeat until you have 4 tacks at 90*.
Burn her in. Never had one move.
Click to expand...

Exactly the methodology used 👍
 
Your work and attention to detail is amazing as always! And I’m sure slightly more accurate than the method I used to build mine. :laughing:

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Finished up all the shafts and turned out ok for a backyard hack. Just need to finish welding the carrier bearing mount and paint the mid & rear shafts.

I was able to get the front and rear shafts within 0.001" and the mid shaft within 0.004". They are 2.5"OD 0.25" wall and almost perfectly round which is not the case for the mid shaft. The mid shaft like to drove the OCD in me crazy. The mid shaft is 3"OD 0.05" wall DOM. DOM that size has a decent size seem and it's not completely round. I ground out the seem the best I could but it would still oblong the tube when I pressed in the ends. After hours of fucking with it I got it close enough for government work.

Definitely learned a lot and that was the main objective. Thanks for all the advice folks!





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I have the same carrier bearings in my buggy front and rear due to the crazy drivetrain angles. I wanted to run a slip on the midship but couldn’t find a combination short enough. So mine are hard mounted with my drivetrain poly mounted. I know that’s not ideal. I wish I would’ve done something different now. Is your drivetrain rigid or poly mounted?
 
The drivetrain uses poly mounts. I've held off welding the carrier mount to the frame while I contemplate that issue. I've got some 1/4" rubber vibration mat I'm thinking of sandwiching in between the frame mount and bearing mount. The old carrier bearing used an OEM rubber mount.
 
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