Driveshaft incident

Found this on another forum, does not sound good for her arm. It says it was a steel shaft, but by the silver - white color in the picture, it looks like it was possibly aluminum. But the end cap is either dirty aluminum or steel which then it would be a steel shaft. The first responder to the accident said this, I use an aluminum big piece drive shaft,” Demory explained. “If that was to break it would break in a million little pieces. but when Rick Brown's aluminum shaft broke it did not break into a million pieces. Aluminum or steel shaft, at this HP I think a driveshaft tunnel tube is needed.

http://www.competitionplus.com/index.php/drag-racing/news/15135-first-responder-to-nesbitt-car-i-had-no-idea-what-htranspired

Sounds like a pretty damn bad accident. Hope she recovers.

Like was said mine ripped and did'nt disintegrate into alot of pieces. IMO,I think aluminum could have done just as much damage as the steel did. Has anyone witnessed alum. exploding into lots of pieces?

bbf-falcon wrote:Like was said mine ripped and did'nt disintegrate into alot of pieces. IMO,I think aluminum could have done just as much damage as the steel did. Has anyone witnessed alum. exploding into lots of pieces?

I don't understand why anyone would think it should break into pieces, it is not tempered glass. Try and rip a beer can in half and you get razar sharp shrapnel that would be whipping around inside your car at some godly rpm. Very scary if you ask me. I will definitely rethink my next cars drive shaft loops.

broke a driveshaft in my car years ago just as I reached up for the parachute lever and I got real lucky with no injuries , the first thing that got put in the car was a .100" thick steel full driveshaft enclosure !!
Frank

If you will remember at Norwalk Rick. Randy Malik mentioned this about the different aluminium tubing differences. Cant remember myself. Maybe he will chime in.

I rember a guy with a CARBON FIBER driveshaft at Norwalk exploded, but I've never hear of an aluminum or steel on doing anything more than twist to hell and break off.

Damn, that's horrible.

After seeing fragments of the CF shaft at Norwalk,I wouldn't want one either. When it let go it IMBEDDED little tiny fragments of itself in the starting line that took the track crew forever to getout of the pavement

Her accident appears to have been on the top end, where Rick Yours was on the starting Line (lower speed on the drive shaft), I'm thinking the aluminum will shread easier than a steel one in the type of accident she had, it may not have been so bad with an aluminum one.

Carbon Fiber is weird I'm not sure how it would act, i'm thinking it would splinter.

IMO I'd rather have the steel drive shaft for strength. Maybe put a tube in rather than loops when the speeds and car starts getting real fast????

Yea Dave ,I agree

My driveshaft incident happened when I twisted the the pinion shaft off the Strange gears at the starting line. With the engine on the rev limiter, the driveshaft spinning in the loop (somewhere near the middle of the shaft) probably looked like a water-wiggle until it tore itself in two and exited the car (I think that's how Rick's came out,)....tearing up an Ultraglide all the way to the planetaries. If you're not gonna use a driveshaft tube, I think placement of the loops is critical....like maybe 3 of them, one near each end and one in the middle. Might have saved myself a trans, too. Luckily, no injuries but the underside of the car caught hell.

Even with a driveshaft enclosure tube, you still want to use driveshaft loops as well.

I hope the girl is okay! This subject came up once before on the old forum. Pro Mod driver had his driveshaft come through the floor and messed him up pretty bad. After that I decided to add a shield in my tunnel that is position right next to the driver. I made it from 4130 sheet, 1/8" thick with lightning holes to cut the weight down. With the Denny's Pro Mod Nitrous shaft, loops, and shield, I feel pretty good. You can't never be too safe. Here's an early photo during the build process.

damn .... thats nice Doug

Man that's a horrible thing to have to go through. I like my truck for this reason. When I'm in the seat, about 98% of the driveshaft is behind me, it would have to shred the back of my cab and the stock floor before it got up to where I'm sitting. Not that it can't happen, but I do feel a little safer in this particular situation. Doug Rahn is 100% correct, you can't EVER be too safe.

Thoughts and prayers for the girl and her family.






Doug...