Drive shaft failure survey
Discussion
Let's see, since I've owned it
6 years of about 20-30 hill/sprint events each with an average of over 4 standing starts,
We'll call it 900 standing starts and 25 hours of hard accell decell running.
In the eight years before me, probably 3 or 4 years of serious racing which is ?? hours plus several years of track days with the odd race?
Any by the way as far as I can tell theses are still the original "cut and shut" tube welded hybrid fiesta shafts.
6 years of about 20-30 hill/sprint events each with an average of over 4 standing starts,
We'll call it 900 standing starts and 25 hours of hard accell decell running.
In the eight years before me, probably 3 or 4 years of serious racing which is ?? hours plus several years of track days with the odd race?
Any by the way as far as I can tell theses are still the original "cut and shut" tube welded hybrid fiesta shafts.
Did someone mention my name?
I must admit to breaking quite a few of the 'wet spaghetti' shafts in the year or so I have owned my Prosport 1300. I must admit at the start to being quite heavy on the tyre warming until I broke my first shaft.
After that I tended just to launch it off the line and forgot all about tyre warming altogether - avg time cost was 0.2-0.3sec to the 64ft beam at Doune . Then I got a bit braver and started to 'warm' them when it was wet. This led to another shaft break...
Back to just launching off the line... This lasted so long until I had another shaft break. Admittedly these were either the shafts that were on the car (who knows of history!) and a couple of second hand ones that I got along the way.
I am now on new shafts from Big R and haven't had an issue in the last couple of rounds - and that has been with taking bravery pills on the final run and given the tyres a quick spin up on the line - both launches saved a scrappy run and ended up with PBs on both occasions
I do have a spare set that are new. I was planning to get some hivvy dooty ones this winter although I have a nagging feeling that its better to spend £150 every so often than suffer a £1-2k gearbox/diff rebuild...
Anybody got any opinions on hivvy dooty shafts?
As a comparison, my busa engined westie had the standard ford diff, shafts and CV pots and I used to kick the ass out of all sorts of tyres (none 10" slicks though) and never had any issue with shafts, diffs or gearboxes... That was on a K8 motor though - are they any stronger? Should I not be worried about gearbox damage on the powertec motors?
I must admit to breaking quite a few of the 'wet spaghetti' shafts in the year or so I have owned my Prosport 1300. I must admit at the start to being quite heavy on the tyre warming until I broke my first shaft.
After that I tended just to launch it off the line and forgot all about tyre warming altogether - avg time cost was 0.2-0.3sec to the 64ft beam at Doune . Then I got a bit braver and started to 'warm' them when it was wet. This led to another shaft break...
Back to just launching off the line... This lasted so long until I had another shaft break. Admittedly these were either the shafts that were on the car (who knows of history!) and a couple of second hand ones that I got along the way.
I am now on new shafts from Big R and haven't had an issue in the last couple of rounds - and that has been with taking bravery pills on the final run and given the tyres a quick spin up on the line - both launches saved a scrappy run and ended up with PBs on both occasions
I do have a spare set that are new. I was planning to get some hivvy dooty ones this winter although I have a nagging feeling that its better to spend £150 every so often than suffer a £1-2k gearbox/diff rebuild...
Anybody got any opinions on hivvy dooty shafts?
As a comparison, my busa engined westie had the standard ford diff, shafts and CV pots and I used to kick the ass out of all sorts of tyres (none 10" slicks though) and never had any issue with shafts, diffs or gearboxes... That was on a K8 motor though - are they any stronger? Should I not be worried about gearbox damage on the powertec motors?
Did someone mention my name?
I must admit to breaking quite a few of the 'wet spaghetti' shafts in the year or so I have owned my Prosport 1300. I must admit at the start to being quite heavy on the tyre warming until I broke my first shaft.
After that I tended just to launch it off the line and forgot all about tyre warming altogether - avg time cost was 0.2-0.3sec to the 64ft beam at Doune . Then I got a bit braver and started to 'warm' them when it was wet. This led to another shaft break...
Back to just launching off the line... This lasted so long until I had another shaft break. Admittedly these were either the shafts that were on the car (who knows of history!) and a couple of second hand ones that I got along the way.
I am now on new shafts from Big R and haven't had an issue in the last couple of rounds - and that has been with taking bravery pills on the final run and given the tyres a quick spin up on the line - both launches saved a scrappy run and ended up with PBs on both occasions
I do have a spare set of shafts that are new. I was planning to get some hivvy dooty ones this winter although I have a nagging feeling that its better to spend £150 (and 10mins to replace) every so often than suffer a £1-2k gearbox/diff rebuild...
Anybody got any opinions on hivvy dooty shafts?
As a comparison, my busa engined westie had the standard ford diff, shafts and CV pots and I used to kick the ass out of all sorts of tyres (none 10" slicks though) and never had any issue with shafts, diffs or gearboxes... That was on a K8 motor though - are they any stronger? Should I/shoud I not be worried about gearbox damage on the powertec motors?
I must admit to breaking quite a few of the 'wet spaghetti' shafts in the year or so I have owned my Prosport 1300. I must admit at the start to being quite heavy on the tyre warming until I broke my first shaft.
After that I tended just to launch it off the line and forgot all about tyre warming altogether - avg time cost was 0.2-0.3sec to the 64ft beam at Doune . Then I got a bit braver and started to 'warm' them when it was wet. This led to another shaft break...
Back to just launching off the line... This lasted so long until I had another shaft break. Admittedly these were either the shafts that were on the car (who knows of history!) and a couple of second hand ones that I got along the way.
I am now on new shafts from Big R and haven't had an issue in the last couple of rounds - and that has been with taking bravery pills on the final run and given the tyres a quick spin up on the line - both launches saved a scrappy run and ended up with PBs on both occasions
I do have a spare set of shafts that are new. I was planning to get some hivvy dooty ones this winter although I have a nagging feeling that its better to spend £150 (and 10mins to replace) every so often than suffer a £1-2k gearbox/diff rebuild...
Anybody got any opinions on hivvy dooty shafts?
As a comparison, my busa engined westie had the standard ford diff, shafts and CV pots and I used to kick the ass out of all sorts of tyres (none 10" slicks though) and never had any issue with shafts, diffs or gearboxes... That was on a K8 motor though - are they any stronger? Should I/shoud I not be worried about gearbox damage on the powertec motors?
A reply so nice, he posted it twice...................................
Anyway, used to get through chains and drive shafts on Betty like I was single handedly supporting the whole BECR transmission industry.
Switched to Brand shafts and never had a problem since! (They're used on all the Forces).
To save you searching through previous posts:
Brand Mechanical Engineering Co
25 Wainwright St
Birmingham
B6 5TH
0121 327 6622
brianbrand2002@yahoo.co.uk
Anyway, used to get through chains and drive shafts on Betty like I was single handedly supporting the whole BECR transmission industry.
Switched to Brand shafts and never had a problem since! (They're used on all the Forces).
To save you searching through previous posts:
Brand Mechanical Engineering Co
25 Wainwright St
Birmingham
B6 5TH
0121 327 6622
brianbrand2002@yahoo.co.uk
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