Half shaft help required

Hi,

I took my Chevrolet CMP c8 out for its first road test and Crunch, the long rear half shaft snapped. Now that I have taken it out, I can see that someone has tried to mend it before. I know its a long shot but has anyone got a spare long rear half shaft for sale or does anyone know of a reputable company that can manufacture one. Any help will be gratefully received.

Jonathan

If no one comes to your help with another shaft or easier supply. I have very good engineers here in Poole who are not over expensive who claim they can make anything. I happen to know that they make batches of half shafts for Classic Jaguars. They're closed for Easter until Mon 24th. PM me if you need contact details. Ron

Thanks for the response Ron, lets see if anyone's got a shaft lying around., ha ha,. If not, then i will just have to bight the bullet and have one made and if your contact can do it, then maybe he's the man for the job.

Jonathan

I agree. See what comes up first. Ron

Hi

Just a thought...

Many Landrovers use 10 spline half shafts, don't know what size yours is, the end flange on yours looks very similialr to a Lightweight. I will see if I can get some meaurements of a Landrover one tommorro.

Cheers

Richard

Thanks for the reply Richard and its always my first thoughts, "what can i use off of a Land Rover". The shaft on the Chevy is a bigger diameter and longer than a Land Rover item and of course, the splines are different. To convert a land Rover shaft would mean a lot of adjustments and after that it wouldn't be strong enough. The original item would have been forged so the machining would have been minimal, however machining a flange and shaft from 5 !/4" diameter material will be expensive. The way to go, i think, will be to have a shaft made with splines on both ends. A flange that is thicker than standard and splined but turned so that it is thinner at the edges and replicates the original shape. Then weld the two together and get it heat treated as one item. Really of course a original item is the way to go. You never know someone might have one.

Regards,

Jonathan

A bit of guidance on material , I think the '4340' will be in cast form ? This stuff will be at the better end.

Have a read of this :-

In addition to our normal rear shafts which are made of the 4340 material we have made a limited quantity of these shafts in 300M material. This 300M is in theory only about 20% stronger but is much more elastic, we have also reduced the main shank diameter down by 2mm to ensure the whole shaft can flex and we have no stress concentrations at the spline ends. These are more expensive at £ 475/pair and are aimed at competition users that cant afford a shaft failure mid race.

SOURCE.

http://www.ashcroft-transmissions.co.uk/halfshafts/late-rears.html

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Obviously if you have to go the bespoke route , possibly with mods at hub flange - then a few extra ££ on material would add little to the total cost and be a future investment.

Before you get carried away, find someone with CCKW spares and compare. The back axle in my 1.5 ton chev used the same shafts as the CCKW, and I wouldn't be surprised to find the C8 interchanged with something, even a contemporary car.

Ask on Maple Leaf Up first

,Hi Johann

I have broken and replaced both rear axles shafts on my HUP first one the long side I found a replacement with help friends on MLU. When the short side broke there was no spare to be found. So I had one made by a speed shop that specializes in making axles for race cars and high purformance axles for tractor pulls. Thing is rated for something over 400HP. Cost was reasonable something like $375 in 2005.

Turns out the determining factor from these axle shops is the length and will it fit in their heat treating oven. I sent them a drawing (see http://www.canadianmilitarypattern.com/PartsNeeded.html) once they said it looked like something they could do shipped them the broken axle and two weeks later I had a nice new axle shaft. Best part it fitted.

So the leads on companies that can do this stuff, that have been suggested, are where I'd start. If you do go the new axle shaft route please share the information on who did the work.

Cheers Phil

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have searched high and low for originals, with no luck but at the same time making enquires at companies within fairly easy driving from where I am based, to have the items manufactured. In the end I have decided to have half shafts made with separate flanges, so in the event of future breakage I can get spares relatively easily. I am having both shafts made along with flanges and the I will make a cap to cover the shaft end that replicates the look of the end of the original shafts. Unfortunately but predictably, the flanges will be thicker than the originals but it will be better that not being able to use the vehicle. The company making the shafts and flanges is Rakeway engineering in Cheadle Staffordshire UK. I took the originals and the diff up to them on Thursday and they appear to make some nice parts, time will tell. Its an 8 week turnaround so I will let you know when the bits are home and what they are like.

Once again, thanks for all the input.

Jonathan

Rakeway has a first-class reputation for quality machining and manufacturing within the Landrover community, and it is interesting to learn that they will do work of this nature and small volume.

That's good to hear thanks, their components certainly look good. Neil, the gentleman that I delt with seemed happy to do any quantity and for any vehicle. In fact whilst I was in hospital over the weekend, I passed his details on to a gentleman who rallys BMW's and cant find anyone to produce drive shafts.

Jon

Well its taken some time but at last I have new half shafts!. I was wrong about the first company, rakeway engineering, they proved bloody useless. I left it 10 weeks, then rang to see when I could collect the shafts only to be told that they hadn't even looked at them, and that he, the owner, was the sort of person that you had to pester to get anything done. He then told me that if I phoned back in 2 weeks and this is his actual statement "he would, if he could be bothered, have a look at them". To say that I was shocked would be an understatement, so the next morning I picked the shafts up and took them to GB engineering. Whilst they didn't honour their original 4 week delivery they did what appears to be a good job, only time will tell and were pleasant to deal with. It's taken some time and I have missed the summer but at least after the weekend I should be mobile and there's one last local show to attend.

Jon