Aluminum driveshaft

[hiball3985]

No real experience with them but I did think about using one at one time. I talked to the guy at the drive shaft shop about it when I want to change from the tapered shaft and old style U joint and pinion flange to a one diameter shaft and later pinion flange and he took me in the back of the shop and showed me a big pile of torn up aluminum shafts, all from different makes and models, he said many were from Ford trucks. I'm sure I would have any issue behind my 292 but I decided to go with the steel. If I had a 500hp motor I think I would look at one of the high performance competition shafts that are made but then there is a big difference in $$$$$.

[rmk57]

From the information I have the Ford racing driveshaft for Mustangs is the same Alcoa aluminum shaft from police C/V, only shortened of coarse. Mine already has a Spicer hybrid u-joint in it now for the Daytona pinion support. I don't see why I couldn't use my original c-6 slip yoke also. Yes, finding one that hasn't been damaged by a forklift could be a challenge. Whats scary is the way some wrecking yards balance these cars on just the steel rims placed under the body.

Just took a quick measurement of my original driveshaft and it's 3.25 then steps down to 2.75 then to 2.25 and finally 2.00 for the last foot and half or so.
Crown Vic driveshaft is 3.66.

[John Palmer]

John, the stickshift drag racing group I belong to ( bcsupershifter.com), has 4 VW Beetles that run with us, 3 run low to mid 10s, naturally aspirated, and the other is turbocharged, and has gone mid 9s. Anybody that says Fords are expensive to race should check with the VW guys!  Mendeolla transaxles, every single engine piece is aftermarket, big $$$ Weber carbs etc, makes even racing a FE seem like a bargain!

The Air Cooled guys from BC are hard core and were always a lot of fun.  Even though we raced mostly in California, they always came down to see us race at The March Meet at Bakersfield, and the Bug In events.


Ask them if they know of The Palmer Boys, out of Orange County?


They came to one of our house parties before a race, and we had a "empty" five gallon can of VP Propylene Oxide, for the base of our tiki torch. 


Yea, parts are expensive.  We ran billet, flanged, Scat cranks.  The best we ever got was two seasons, before they cracked at the center main. 

[RICH MUISE]

John, not to change the subject, but noticing your Santa Ana location just sent me on a nostalgic trip back in time. I had moved to Cal in the late 60's, and after a few years in the LA area, I eventually wound up working for a large machine shop in Irvine on Campus drive (next to the airport). Bought a house in Huntington Beach for 24,500! 5 or 6 years later, I worked my way up from prototype Bridgeport machinist to General Manager. We moved the shop to Santa Ana at Segerstrom and Croddy way, just about 1 1/2 miles from my new house in Fountain Valley. Worked my way up to VP of manufacturing after another 5 or 6 years. Finally got worn out working 6 or 7 12 hour days a week!, and tired of the conjestion.......moved to Colorado.
Anyway. I just Google earthed Santa Ana to see if I could find locations. As conjested as it was when I left in the 80's, things sure have changed. What a trip using the street view to see if I could find my way from the Croddy Way shop to my house in the Green Valley tract of Fountain Valley!

[John Palmer]

John, not to change the subject, but noticing your Santa Ana location just sent me on a nostalgic trip back in time. I had moved to Cal in the late 60's, and after a few years in the LA area, I eventually wound up working for a large machine shop in Irvine on Campus drive (next to the airport). Bought a house in Huntington Beach for 24,500! 5 or 6 years later, I worked my way up from prototype Bridgeport machinist to General Manager. We moved the shop to Santa Ana at Segerstrom and Croddy way, just about 1 1/2 miles from my new house in Fountain Valley. Worked my way up to VP of manufacturing after another 5 or 6 years. Finally got worn out working 6 or 7 12 hour days a week!, and tired of the conjestion.......moved to Colorado.
Anyway. I just Google earthed Santa Ana to see if I could find locations. As conjested as it was when I left in the 80's, things sure have changed. What a trip using the street view to see if I could find my way from the Croddy Way shop to my house in the Green Valley tract of Fountain Valley!

Rich, sorry to get this thread off track!

I guess it's the same for most of us "old guys", here.  I grew up in Phoenix, AZ.  When we go back to visit, I can hardly find my way around town because of all of the new freeways and commercial development.  Like in southern california, all of the small towns in the Valley of the Sun grew together into one major metro area.  I got to So. Cal. in 1978, via a job transfer.  It was a crazy area at that time, and has only became more impacted.  Because of age, medical issues, and grand kids, it makes it a very hard choice to pick up and move to a slower paced place.  Hell, I was the youngest guy on the block 30 years ago, now all of my neighbors have died off, and I realized "I'm now the old guy".  I keep young (in mind) by always building something.