Curious what other folks might have come up with to protect the transmission from the dreaded prop shaft failure.

I was considering some kind of aluminum guard of sorts, or a steel tube construction perhaps would be a better choice. I don't see a whole lot from searching to buy something ready made, perhaps I might come up with a design.

-Greg

 

A new driveshaft w grease zerks
or rebuild your original ^

 

Well, mine as it sits now, SEEMS absolutely fine w/ 94k original miles but given their notoriety, I'm nervous to run it at all..... admittedly I know very little first hand about this other than there's a couple options for replacements and that the cause is heat via the CAT cooking the grease which can't be effectively replaced.


I suppose I could simply upgrade the shaft. Are there many who have experienced failure even in doing so? In which case a guard might be a good measure either way?

 

Delete the cat and space out the rear O2 sensors. They sell a drive shaft “loop” bracket if you are really worried, it might help, might add to the carnage if the drive shaft snaps. Maybe fabricate a custom transmission divider plate and under shield.

 

I personally don't have the front support installed on any of my D2's due to 3inch lifts and IMHO if the drive shaft fails it has a much higher chance of dropping to the ground and bouncing around vs dropping maybe 6-8inches and bouncing right back up into the transmission/bell housing area. All of my D2's have fully zerk fitted drive shafts up front, but I don't miss that front support at all! It was in the way when the suspension flexed and if you add spacers to it you've now got this massive piece of metal dragging along the trail.

 

a front drive shaft ( in motion) failure would most likely cause some carnage to much more then just the tranny.
The time in fabrication to shield just the tranny from a problem which would likely take out more in its path seems like it would be extra work with little yield.

The location of that Double cardon on the transfer case side gets an awful lot of heat in that pocket of space - and without any way to grease those bearings, its just a matter of at what condition you'll catch it when it wears out. Ive seen higher mileage on original driveshafts in good shape - suppose the longer you go the more bold you get

You really should rebuild with greaseable bearings and check it off the list - lucky8 has a deal for forum members for a reasonable swap replacement. and there's always Tom Woods or GBR

 

 

I'm probably going to run catless with this LS swap anyway so that'll help no doubt.

Hmm, the loop is an interesting idea. I've had some other cars with that, even the S2000 has that loop.

Running a lift and no support is another direction, figure it a 50/50 that it jumps up for falls out of the way first but you've certainly bettered the chances by some degree.

True about perhaps it causing more damage but the loop idea as other manufactures have done it might not be SO crazy. I'll look into replacing it with something Zerk'd. Might do some combination of, delete cat, guard ring, zerk'd shaft and figure between all those I'm "cured" of this notorious issue.

Thanks all for input on this. Nice to have good heads at work.

-Greg

 

I’ve worked on several D2’s in which the OEM shaft failed (14 years old & OEM shaft).

Damage was as listed:

Massive Dent in floor
Destroyed Y pipe & passenger cat
Cracked Transmission & massive hole in it
Hole in Transmission Pan
Transfer Case broken clean off transmission
Destroyed TC/Transmission rubber mounts
Main Fuel line & Return Line smashed to bits leaking fuel
Bent support bar (good riddance...)
Drive shaft in several pieces

Was able to get that D2 back on the road, but it certainly makes a 125.00-300.00 front drive shaft look like pennies vs what that customer paid to get it fixed!!

 

Point well taken.



I do however like the idea of a floating ring supported on both sides that encompasses the entire shaft and is lined with perhaps delrin or even nylon. The idea being it snaps loose and it goes nowhere, just a few inches of play to allow the suspension to do its job but it holds it half way down or so and keeps it fully in place. Might be a pipe dream but I'll at least look at it under there and see. Otherwise it's off to a drive shaft upgrade soon. lol