I have a question about the use of half shafts in a mid engined car.

Which half shaft are you using. Especially what are guys like suparuss and andygtt using?

Cheers,

Geoff

[Edited on 19/10/05 by geoffreyh]

GKN..... I had some spare Ultima ones which take up to 1000bhp.

saying that my car is really a little wide for them so I may sell them, but I'll only be raplacing them with longer GKN versions.

BTW for reasonable power Porsche ones would be fine and definatelly a low cost option.

I bought porsche 996 hubs, uprights, wishbones and drive shafts for £150.... and I've not used the uprights or wishbones so will be able to sell these on.
Bearings arn't cheap though.

If you design the car to incorporate this lot from the start you would also be able to use Porsche wheels which can be got cheap for the size/spec.

My Aeon uses modified Mondeo jobbies which should surely be enough to handle 300 bhp - all down to the welding I suppose.

[Edited on 19-10-05 by RazMan]

assuming that you are using Ford pattern 6 bolt CV joints (as per the GKN ones, either the "sierra 4x4" pattern ones or the 2wd Cosworth heavy duty ones) then there is a company that I always rattle on about which for some reason nobody ever takes any bloody notice of called Geoff Berrisford engineering, who make shafts to any length, with no welding, i.e. machined and made from new EN27 steel blanks and with rolled splines and heat treated, for £70 a piece solid and £160 a piece gundrilled F1 spec "unbreakable" items, which will take any power level that you can throw at them.

call 01270 841081

you will NOT be disappointed with their service and product, proper engineering with none of the bullshit that is so prevalent in the kit car industry these days (with a number of exceptions)

ive used the audi ones that still have never been removed from the engine im using. they are stuck cos i removed the wheels and uprights before i had chance to unbolt the inner cvs and now cant get any leverage on them cos every thing keeps spinning round. not that they need to come off, would be nice thats all.

Yes Russ I remember those inner CV bolts were murder to shift- I think I must have used vice grips locked onto the hub and then jammed against the suspension in some way.

Though thats not much help if you've removed the trannie with shafts still attached!- perhaps set trannie on ground and attach vice grips to hub or shaft which will turn until grips hit the ground- I'm sure someone can think of something better than this! lol

What sort of uprights are u using with the audi shafts? Are you changing the outer CV joint?

chris

ive used all the original front drivetrain and modified the front uprights to go at the back.
im fabbing up my wishbones now so should be able to unbolt those shafts soon! good job cos the gearbox wont come back out unless theyre removed.

Thx Russ- any pics of the uprights?

Are you using the front discs as well? what about a handbrake provision?

chris

could you not just use an impact gun to remove the shafts?

erm, no prolly not, they are tight as hell. doesnt matter now though, as i said it too late now but thanks! .

pics of my pright are in my gallery under modified uprights.
ill post some pics of the rear wishbones soon too cos they are nearly finished.

Cheers,


Russ.

Great job on those uprights Russ,

Originally I had thought of doing something similiar to but was concerned about the large KPI angle, so I cut my upright down much further which was a lot more hassle!

Really like your design - particularly the top mount which looks very strong. Just wondering what your thougnts were on the KPI.

Also have you figured out anything for a handbrake?

chris

thanks,
when i was chopping them up i just tried to keep the top mounts in a bit but wasnt too concerned at the time. i just figured id design the rest of the geometry around how they ended up and have managed to get it fairly decent (in theory). i get about 2.5 degrees of camber for 2" of suspension travel so just need to try make sure the suspension stiffness allows the correct amount of roll to make up for it.
i still havent decided on the hand brake yet, just depends on my budget at the time, i have a set of rear sierra callipers i could use but hopefully will be able to afford some willwoods or similar. willwood also do seperate handbrake callipers for about £40 each so could just use the audi fronts but they might be a bit ott.


Cheers,


Russ.

I had a look at using audi rear discs with rear calibers but there is much great inset than with the front disc. The back of the rear disc hits the upright- a spacer would cure this but I think it would be alot easier if the front disc could be kept and a suitable caliber used with it.

Again- best of luck with it - will be very interested to see how it goes.

chris