02-05-2023, 01:05 PM | #1 |
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*** Front Driveshaft Safety Shield ***
Hey fellas, as promised i put a lot of effort, time, research, and tears into this little project, that could hopefully save someone their engine or transmission.
It seems to be fairly common for a front driveshaft to blow up at the tcase ujoint at speed and severely damage transmission housing/tcase splines, or, when the front ujoint goes, driveshaft would hit the oil pan inevitably leading to oil loss and, if not caught in time, oil starvation/severe engine damage. All this results in towing bills, interrupted family/business trips, weeks at the dealership awaiting repairs, and ofcourse thousands in damages as well. A couple months ago i was asked to maybe come up with a solution similar to a driveshaft loop on race cars, so I thought hell why not, i got under my f85 and was stunned by the lack of space, or the lack of possible mounting points given the layout of the f85 chassis plus having exhaust in the way, tcase crossmember, and an abundance of metal shielding towards the front of the driveshaft flange. So i went to town with cardboard and my stapler lol. Later on Myself and a couple of super helpful and creative guys at the local machine shop made a mock up out of thin aluminum to confirm angles and overall fitment, we had to redo this 4 times, but here we are with yhe finalized design and fit ! Initial goal was to have something that would utilize factory mounting points, be simple to install and function, as well as reversible if needed to remove upon trade in or any service work. This driveshaft shield is made out of 3/8” 5952 aluminum plate, and installs in the transfer case brace factory hole (will need to be enlarged just a little), bolts up to the front crossbrace and uses factory hope there, and also requires drilling two mounting holes in the aluminum engine belly pan for a solid mount/install. Top piece is installed first over the driveshaft, then you pretty much slide the bottom piece in , install bolts into the factory bolt holes, and after that youre ready to drill two holes in the belly pan. Overall install shouldn’t take longer than 30 minutes, also should prevent driveshaft from hitting things if either one of the ujoints gives up the ghost. Sleeve is made to be pretty tight around the driveshaft, so if ujoint breaks, it stays inside the loop with minimal travel, making a lot of noise. I currently placed a bulk order of 16 pieces where 4 pieces were already called for. I will have more made depending on how this takes off, i am also super close to having the HD driveshaft made using SKF replaceable ujoints, fully balanced, with longer splines and high quality pipe with minimal runout. Hopefully will have this part ready in the next couple weeks, definitely getting there 100%. Please let me know what do you think of this piece, and if anyone would be interested in placing an order with me. I am trying to finalize the cost with the shop, so hopefully with material, hardware, and labor to make both halves, i should stay in the ballpark of 340-380 a piece shipped, will take a few more days to confirm the cost , also, the hardware in the pictures will be changed up just a little, this was my personal test piece , i also had it painted flat black, normally these would come as a plain aluminum part ready to install. PS F15 safety piece will be available shortly, ill have to look into plastic trim that is in the way and proper way to make everything work together for a clean and efficient install Last edited by dentprotony@gmail.com; 02-05-2023 at 01:31 PM.. |
02-05-2023, 05:52 PM | #5 |
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Drives: E46 ZCP, F85, E70, G07
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Awesome! Sign me up!
I love how it looks OE.
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02-05-2023, 08:00 PM | #6 |
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This looks well done. Nice work.
As a dumb sales guy I’m hoping this question doesn’t come off sarcastic, but how do you connect the two pieces? I see 4 nuts and bolts, but I’m not sure how one would be able to install like the picuters in the absence of some child labor (tiny hands). Maybe the scale has been lost on me. (Edited because I can’t spell) |
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02-05-2023, 08:46 PM | #7 | |
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Quote:
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03-17-2023, 08:23 PM | #11 |
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Fellas finally some good news!!!! these are finally in stock, i will start shipping them out this week !!! |
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04-21-2023, 08:23 PM | #13 |
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04-21-2023, 08:27 PM | #14 |
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Unfortunately myself and the shop that is doing the job for me made a mistake on making a splined yoke order. I asked them to make a yoke that will fit uj398 ujoint, they made an extended spline yoke but it fits factory ujoint (smaller). So we had to reaorder the mold for the correct ujoint (skf uj398) because factory ujoint only available from Europe and would be a challenge to get locally. Will have to wait 30-45 days for a new yoke. Sucks but i am getting there
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08-05-2023, 07:00 PM | #15 |
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It looks like it's been a few months since the safety shield started to ship, any customers installed it so far? What's the verdict?
If a factory driveshaft does have a catastrophic failure - how confident are you that it isn't just going to break this and cause more debris to damage other critical/expensive components like transmission sump, etc.? |
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08-15-2023, 01:32 PM | #17 |
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I'm curious...if we get your upgraded driveshaft then would there be a need to get this safety shield?
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08-15-2023, 03:14 PM | #18 |
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I am curious as well... could we get the safety shield and then just replace the driveshaft if there's a failure or like EuroCarFan mentioned just upgrading the driveshaft as opposed to needing the shield.
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08-15-2023, 05:11 PM | #19 | |
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[QUOTE=OldPueblo;30401249]
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08-15-2023, 05:15 PM | #20 |
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Ideally driveshaft would be a complete solution for the issue, because splines are longer, ujoints are larger , and both flanges are beefier than stock. But i have several customers that do run both
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08-15-2023, 05:19 PM | #21 |
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You can get the shield, and then get the driveshaft later when you're ready. I offer 50 off if both are bought from me
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