Custom Half Shafts needed

I am changing my differential and will likely need custom half shafts.

Any recommendations on who would be good to contact?

My car had a chain drive diff that was pretty much centered in the car. I'm changing to a direct drive gearbox (like in Radical SR3's), and it is offset towards the right a few inches.

Previously my car used four Lobro style CV joints but this new gearbox must use a smaller O.D. tripod joint on the inner right shaft (due to the shape of the case - there's no room for the big CV joint). It's looking like my right half shaft will need two different types of end splines - Tripod on the inner end and CV on the outer end.

Thanks for any recommendations.

Last time I needed halfshafts Doug at Fast Forward. Great price and unbelievable quality.

I talked with Doug. It was a great conversation. He spent a half hour on the phone with me, discussing several options.

I ended up working with these guys. They are making two axles for me for $1200.

https://driveshaftshop.com/custom-driveshafts

Years ago I made my drive shafts for the FSV, both air cooled and water cooled.

I did it by cutting the spline-ed ends off stock VW driveshafts. I had about 2" of drive shaft to machine down to the ID of the tubes. I then turned the cut ends down to press into 1 inch by .090 wall 4130 tubing. I found it necessary to anneal the cut ends where I was going to machine. I did that by heating the ends to a red glow and then sticking the end into a bucket of sand blasting sand and let it cool. I cut the ends of the tubing square but I think a fish mouth cut to increase the welded area would be an improvement.

After TIG welding the ends into the tubes, I post heated the part to stress relieve the finished part.

Bottom line it was the least expensive way to make drive shafts and I never had any issues. I did that on close to 10 cars.

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Originally Posted by S Lathrop

Years ago I made my drive shafts for the FSV, both air cooled and water cooled.

I did it by cutting the spline-ed ends off stock VW driveshafts. I had about 2" of drive shaft to machine down to the ID of the tubes. I then turned the cut ends down to press into 1 inch by .090 wall 4130 tubing. I found it necessary to anneal the cut ends where I was going to machine. I did that by heating the ends to a red glow and then sticking the end into a bucket of sand blasting sand and let it cool. I cut the ends of the tubing square but I think a fish mouth cut to increase the welded area would be an improvement.

After TIG welding the ends into the tubes, I post heated the part to stress relieve the finished part.

Bottom line it was the least expensive way to make drive shafts and I never had any issues. I did that on close to 10 cars.

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I did the same thing in all the details noted above but cut the tubing material on a 45 and also did button welds on the tubing. The engine in the car was a turbo ZX-11. No failures of any kind

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Originally Posted by Racerex1

I did the same thing in all the details noted above but cut the tubing material on a 45 and also did button welds on the tubing. The engine in the car was a turbo ZX-11. No failures of any kind

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Thats how we built the original Amac axles that Dick refers to. But eventually they did break and we went to custom machined axles. Fabbed axles do work but we've never had a custom made axle fail. I just recently had Taylor make us some at reasonable prices and good turn around. These were combination VW/fiat x1/9 spline axles.

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Originally Posted by 10rmotor

Thats how we built the original Amac axles that Dick refers to. But eventually they did break and we went to custom machined axles. Fabbed axles do work but we've never had a custom made axle fail. I just recently had Taylor make us some at reasonable prices and good turn around.

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That's good to hear. I am currently working with The Driveshaft Shop* in Salisbury, North Carolina.. They are making me two halfshafts (even though I only need one) for $1,200. It is taking a long time, but they did warn me it'd take 8-10 weeks. I should have them by January end (which would be about 15 weeks from when I sent them my fabbed axle).

* https://driveshaftshop.com/axle-measurement/

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Originally Posted by RussMcB

That's good to hear. I am currently working with The Driveshaft Shop* in Salisbury, North Carolina.. They are making me two halfshafts (even though I only need one) for $1,200. It is taking a long time, but they did warn me it'd take 8-10 weeks. I should have them by January end (which would be about 15 weeks from when I sent them my fabbed axle).

* https://driveshaftshop.com/axle-measurement/

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Wow thats crazy. The axle we had made wasn't near that much.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RussMcB

That's good to hear. I am currently working with The Driveshaft Shop* in Salisbury, North Carolina.. They are making me two halfshafts (even though I only need one) for $1,200. It is taking a long time, but they did warn me it'd take 8-10 weeks. I should have them by January end (which would be about 15 weeks from when I sent them my fabbed axle).

* https://driveshaftshop.com/axle-measurement/

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Call scott young enterprises. Best source for any drive line part.

To wrap up this thread from last year,

I bailed with The Driveshaft Shop in Salisbury, North Carolina. They gave me a run around for months, saying they needed to schedule time (stop other production) to "set up" the machine to make my uncommon splines. After 6 months (and after promising to turn around in 3 months), I asked them to return all of my parts and to forget about it. They returned the deposit I had sent (thank goodness). I wholeheartedly do not recommend them, even though they sounded like the answer. Maybe they are okay for more common needs.

Afterwards I hooked up with a talented welder/fabricator near Orlando and he mated together the two ends successfully and it has been working well. This is the solution suggested by Steve Lathrop (he had successfully done on some production Zinks in the past).

I have used Doug Learned @ Fast forward for all the input shafts that I have needed.

Axle shafts are the same issue. Chances are that he has mad shafts that are exactly what you need. In the decades I have used Fast Forward I have never had an issue of any kind. He is trhe guy to go to for axles or input shafts.

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Originally Posted by S Lathrop

I have used Doug Learned @ Fast forward for all the input shafts that I have needed.

Axle shafts are the same issue. Chances are that he has mad shafts that are exactly what you need. In the decades I have used Fast Forward I have never had an issue of any kind. He is trhe guy to go to for axles or input shafts.

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I agree, this is good advice.

As noted in post #3 above, Doug spent quite a while with me on the phone. He said he could do it, but he'd need to run a batch, so it was out of my budget. I was very impressed with his sharing of ideas and have no doubt he'd be a top choice for something like this.

Just another data point.
I just had 2 half shafts made for my March F/SV, by Quad City engineering in Rocton,IL (the old Two Dogg Engineering).
They did a great job.
6 weeks and $300 each.
Rob Lind is the contact there.
I know they have made lots of half shafts over the years, including some for a friends vintage F1 cars.