Steering, Suspension, & Brakes

Hello it's me Mr. Ahlstrom it finally happened after 11 years of total abuse I finally broke a half shaft after all the work in the past couple of weeks to get my car back together after the wreck went to a local car show with my wife on Sunday everybody wanted to see the car run leaving the show I had forgot my slicks are brand-new they tend to really bite when they've never been hot and cold before I didn't even think about it we pulled out of the show no nitrous just nailed it in first and second gear and the left half shaft just went bang. My wife immediately found the silver lining in this cloud she said it's okay honey the front and must've been 2 feet off the ground when it broke at least it looked good we laughed my first set of shafts cost almost $3000 to have made this time I found a local gear cutting shop that said they can shorten and resupplying and axle for me I asked them what it would take to do it he said to do two of them it would take about one hour and $60 that made me very happy I had one shaft llaying in the garage and Richard good second day aired me another complete Nissan shaft for $50 what a nice guy so I should be running again by the weekend here is a photo notice the shaft did not break where it was welded that is unbelievable
we did some testing on the metal on the old shafts they seem to be made out of a steel called H1541 which is the same thing that strange engineering uses in most of their axles my machinist told me if I want to go stronger he can build me a set out of 4140 steel and keep them the fall inch and a quarter diameter and it would cost about $900 for the pair for now all run a set of stock ones it is no coincidence that the shaft broke 1/2 inch away from where it was welded that is where the metal would have had the most change from the heat in welding

I wish I couldve been there to witness!

Me too. Had you had the axles heat treated after welding?

A good source for 1/2 shafts is a place called "the drive shaft shop" in Salisbury, NC. They can custom make shafts in just about any configuration, but have Nissan splined shafts (same as S10) in stock in a ton of lengths because the use them for custom axles using S10 hubs. That's where I got my axles when one of mine broke (much less dramatically).

A Rob thinks for the info I had looked at that place online I had not called them the machine shop still has my axles I stopped in on Friday they were having problems cutting them they were using a shaper machine to do it that is really old school I don't think they've even built those machines in over 60 years they were cutting .003th at a time and ripping teeth off from a carbide cutter they said they'd never seen a piece of steel quite like it they said the same thing my son-in-law who shortened the shafts said it odd steel it's easy to scratch impossible to cut I'm going to go see them on Monday and tell him they can try cutting them on a hob machine if they think it's easier if they do that I will just have to add a second ring clip slot to the shaft the 300zx use different material in the half shafts than other Nissans if they are good for 500 hp in a 3500 pound car they should go 800 hp in my 2100 pound car at least that's the plan hopefully they'll finish the shafts on Monday if not I will call the driveshaft shop you don't know how much I appreciate the information I'm going to take some time today and inspect the front suspension the front end came down so hard I think it tweaked something I will have to inspect it very carefully just to be sure signed thank you

Clan, FWIW, Ford 28 spline is "identical" to Porsche 28spline,(1.220" dia.). This means many aftermarket suppliers like EMPI, 4340 material/good value and 300M/serious axles, are readily available. Cheers, roverman.

97-2003 Ford F150 IFS outer bearing is the same spline as Porsche 930. Used frequently in mini sand rails. Dan's Off road carries CV joints and Empi axles in different lengths reasonably priced.

Hello it's me Tom this has been a ridiculously long process it has reminded me one more time that I have to stop playing around with British cars if I went back to American cars it would be like a 2-for-1 both time and money with that in mind I am in the market for a new toy I'm looking for a 1968 69 or 70 AMX it is the lightest American muscle car ever built plenty of room for any motor you want. But in the meantime I do have my triumph running again the guy who was going to re-spline my axles gave up after a week he said they were just too hard and he was destroying too much tooling trying to cut them nice guy he tried hard but he just couldn't do it so I had to go shopping I found the place out West called Mark Williams enterprise who would build me Nissan splined bars custom engineered for the exact weight torque and horsepower of the car I believe he's probably the best axle builder in the world the fastest cars in the world certainly run his products everyone built individually for one customer at a time he's not that expensive $450 and axle but he's two weeks engineering time and three weeks to build. I converted my car to a V-8 in 14 days minus the building of the hood. So I wound up going with the driveshaft shop that converts the car to the Porsche 930 inner CV and modified stock Nissan outer they did give me a pretty good deal they sold me they're better shafts good for 900 hp four $1048 the problem it took them three tries to send me dimensions I ask for. The Porsche inner only moves in and out about 1 inch a triumph TR six requires just a little more than 1 inch so I had to adjust swingarm geometry and travel to compensate boy am I tired of looking at this car we did go for a drive yesterday two-hour drive into Detroit to go to the Woodward dream Cruise 40,000 cars 1 million people the biggest traffic jam you've ever seen the car did run just fine. Here is a photo of the axles after he tried to cut splines four-week I do believe the splines could be cut on a stock axle if you had a carbide hob the axle is a hardness of 58 the spline is a metric one mod 30° the carbide hob would cut it with no problem as long as you went no more than two or three thousands at a time

Tom, No brag-just sharing, I found my 69' AMX on craigslist. It was about 5 miles away,a 390/auto , without either, just the way I like them/cheap ! It's getting a Vette C5 drive train/suspension and either a 401 V8 or Gen III hemi. Good luck on your quest, roverman.

Hello it's me again we still haven't reached the last word on my axle shafts I've been running the new shafts with Porsche 930 inner joints for about two or three weeks now I have not had a problem yet but I've been preparing the car inspecting every nut and bolt because the dragstrip brand-new is opening on Saturday the seventh I found only one problem in my inspection after four hours of checking every nut and bolt in the drivetrain I found only one problem my Porsche inner CV joints already have more than 10° of play my Nissan inner joints would take two years to get that much play and then they would break the driveshaft shop told me these new shafts were good for 900 hp all M 300 I'm not believing 900 hp whatever horsepower they're good for it's not enough for my car I'm going to the dragstrip on Saturday anyway and I will not hold back if they blowup all I can do is pray they don't rip the gas lines out I've had that happen before the good news I found a place in Idaho that will finish the machining on my stock Nissan shafts they have done it before on those exact shafts they normally charge $150 per shaft since mine are already shortened he said he would do both $120 I do not have their number in front of me but I will post their name and phone number on this site

wish me luck on Saturday for it has been eight years since my car is when down a real dragstrip I'm going to have to make a lot of decisions and adjustments very quickly throughout the day my goal is simple the track is eighth mile if I get it dialed in quickly I'm hoping to go 5.90 at 92 or 93 mph I'm not sure if the track has timing equipment in place yet it might just be arm drop dragracing I will let you know how it goes one thing I'm pretty sure of I will probably have the only British car at the track

signed you only live this life one time