Busted t400

Friend of mine has sbf turbo fox body He just recently put a t400 in it to "try" for this year.this is a reid case ,bolt together converter bad a$$ piece. After a few problems with band adjustments and trial and error with dumping line psi for the spooling thing this turbo deal needs it's made some very promising passes,until Saturday! He made a 4.5? Pass in the 16? Mph range and at the stripe all hell breaks loose. Back tires lock up so he's now riding and only got the wall a little on two corners. After the drive shaft broke in half it goes to rolling again. We don't know what happened but the rearend is fine,the driveshaft is broke,the t400 has a busted bellhousing but internally it's 100% good.
1..could the front ujoint fail and cause the shaft to beat on the yoke enough to bust the bell but nothing on the tail housing? Shaft was a $$ good one too.
2..did something in the trans go nuts and cause it? Transbrake issue maybe?

The trans-brake should only engage in 1st & R , does he shift neutral after the stripe, is there any possibility it went into reverse? I have seen cars upside down due to reverse at the stripe, one detent off ...Reverse.

If not I would ask if it had a bolt together driveshaft loop and if so check the bolts for contact.

As for the quazi I have no idea.

I'm thinking the shift pattern is reversed and has a neutral also. He had to buy a new shifter of some kind for it.

cool40 wrote:I'm thinking the shift pattern is reversed and has a neutral also. He had to buy a new shifter of some kind for it.

I didn't mean to talk out of turn, my Pro-stick is reverse gated, pull the handle push forward neutral it is, it needs the reverse lock out lever pushed to hit the R but if it is not 100% IDKnow what may happen. no disrespect intended.

FalconEh wrote:

cool40 wrote:I'm thinking the shift pattern is reversed and has a neutral also. He had to buy a new shifter of some kind for it.

I didn't mean to talk out of turn, my Pro-stick is reverse gated, pull the handle push forward neutral it is, it needs the reverse lock out lever pushed to hit the R but if it is not 100% IDKnow what may happen. no disrespect intended.

im not much up on t400's so forgive me but this one is a "clean neutral" with reverse patteren but also a neutral after 3rd,just backwards. takes its own shifter i guess but i have no idea if he hit neutral at the end.

Yeow!  Sounds like Mr. Toadie's wild ride.

The closest thing to that experience I have:  A coiled cord in my car flopped around on launch and managed to tap the TB button while the front end was still in the air. (No TB lockout on the box then).  In car video played back in slo-mo told the tale, otherwise I'd still be trying to figure out what happened. I think my tongue may have touched the windshield when it locked up and held for the programmed delay time.  Powerglide teardown (JW's Ultracase) found the output shaft twisted off the planets, all else OK. (I'm sold on the Ultracase)

A friend managed to inadvertently duplicate my stunt in a SBC powered Fox with a glide.  His was a brand new BTE 'glide built on a stock case.
In this case, the powerglide case was split completely in half from the bellhousing to the tailshaft housing.

I know, these are 'glide deals...but I wonder if an electrical issue may have re-applied his brake.  At that speed, there's no telling what might break first.

Glad he's OK, tho.

This kind of thing is scary plus expensive as hell! Hopefully we can figure out why it happened.

That's a bad deal.... Let us know what you find and as said glad he is ok

gmsmkr wrote:That's a bad deal.... Let us know what you find and as said glad he is ok

for sure will if we ever figure it out. Lol

cool40 wrote:This kind of thing is scary plus expensive as hell! Hopefully we can figure out why it happened.

I was lucky...I had in car video of the dash. Until I played back the vid one frame at a time, I was absolutely dumbfounded to explain what had happened. In just ONE FRAME of the video, the coiled cord tapped the button, putting the t-brake back on the programmed 1.125 second delay. The car hit the ground like a manhole cover, and my neck was sore for 2 weeks.

I sincerely hope you get it figured out. In my case, there was no way I'd launch that car again while I still had questions about the cause.
In your case...it would worry me a lot more. Good luck to you.

maverick wrote:

I know, these are 'glide deals...but I wonder if an electrical issue may have re-applied his brake.  At that speed, there's no telling what might break first.

Glad he's OK, tho.

It appears that it wasn't a mechanical / shifting problem so it does lend itself to an electrical / TB issue. Was there any safety switches installed? I am guessing it was not wired to a F-throttle switch, as when it locked up it should have released with the throttle. I have chased some electrical issues on one of my braked C-6's due to a new mis-labeled Mor*$* switch ($50) which was marked N/O - and N/C after a malfunctioning T-Brake I broke out the meter and to my dismay the new rather expensive switch was marked wrong N/O was actually N/C and vise-versa, I would definitely check all of the wiring relays/components in the circuits for proper function / labeling. As Mav said if it wasn't for video he would have never known what happened, further if there was not a 2nd/3rd gear safety device, it is time to incorporate one. Material items can be replaced, but the situations they place you in can cause irreplaceable results.

It has been determined by the professional analyst that the driveshaft had past its life cycle. I never heard of such $hit!

cool40 wrote:It has been determined by the professional analyst  that the driveshaft had past its life cycle. I never heard of such $hit!

me neither...

FalconEh wrote:

cool40 wrote:It has been determined by the professional analyst  that the driveshaft had past its life cycle. I never heard of such $hit!

me neither...

Are you sure a u-joint didn't fail first?  I ask because I twisted off a pinion shaft in a 9" once.  The driveshaft didn't break in two until it flailed around in the loops like a water wiggle...then it tore up evreything clear in to the planetaries.

If it actually was a "driveshaft life cycle" deal, I'd find out who made the shaft and ask 'em about the life expectancy of their unit. I bet you'll get a really vague answer

maverick wrote:
If it actually was a "driveshaft life cycle" deal, I'd find out who made the shaft and ask 'em about the life expectancy of their unit.  I bet you'll get a really vague answer

Let me guess: Oh, between about 1 and 1 million hits at the dragstrip.

whatbumper wrote:

maverick wrote:
If it actually was a "driveshaft life cycle" deal, I'd find out who made the shaft and ask 'em about the life expectancy of their unit.  I bet you'll get a really vague answer

Let me guess:  Oh, between about 1 and 1 million hits at the dragstrip.

I'm sure its got lots of passes on it. Is a driveshaft a consumable?

cool40 wrote:

whatbumper wrote:

maverick wrote:
If it actually was a "driveshaft life cycle" deal, I'd find out who made the shaft and ask 'em about the life expectancy of their unit.  I bet you'll get a really vague answer

Let me guess:  Oh, between about 1 and 1 million hits at the dragstrip.

I'm sure its got lots of passes on it. Is a driveshaft a consumable?

Mine seem to be.

We do change them. Use visual inspection for time. We look for excessive dents or obvious cracks and stress. We use chromoly shafts primarily except promods and they are carbon.

whatbumper wrote:We do change them.  Use visual inspection for time.  We look for excessive dents or obvious cracks and stress.  We use chromoly shafts primarily except promods and they are carbon.  

this one is carbon now,so it won't beat the floor out again.