Driveshaft Loop

[3XBrownCutty]

I was just thinking it wouldn't be that hard to make on since my buddy just bought a welder :lol: My idea was to have a flat steel across where the stock piece is now, and just bend some flat steel into a U shape and weld it to the bottom of the other flat piece. This is not gonna be ihra spec or whatever, just something do, and to put together on a weekend...

Any reccomendations on how thick of steel I should use. Also How could i get the U bend easily?

 

[patmckinneyracing]

The same way my old man made his. He might have welded it, but you can make two separate U pieces to bolt together. What we did to make his was take 1/4 inch thick flat steel bar and found a tree that had a similar diameter to what we were looking for. So that along with a little bit of torch work and the bend was simple as that. This is how I'm going to make mine and we have both a stick and mig welders but I doubt I'll need a stick welder to weld up 1/4 inch steel.

 

[FE3X CLONE]

I bought a cheap Summit brand bolt together driveshaft loop and then modified it to fit using the existing mounting points on the car. Then welded it all together instead of keeping it a bolt together.

While your doing it, you might as well make it NHRA legal. 1/4" thick with the steel being 2" wide. Needs to be within 6" of the front u-joint.

The tricky part will be bending the 1/4" steel. You'd be better off in buying a piece of steel pipe with a 1/4" wall thickness making sure its inside diameter is big enough to slip around your driveshaft. Then just weld that pipe to your pieces running along the bottom that bolt to the car.

Your bottom flat piece also won't likely be flat. The floor boards/mounting points are at two differen levels from one side to the other.

 

[patmckinneyracing]

I would highly recommend finding a different spot to mount the loop. When I snapped my drive shaft in half, I had only the factory bracket bolted in. After this happened, it had broken the mounting pad away from the floor board on the passenger side and the driver side mounting pad was hanging on by one tack weld. I'm still coming up with a way to better mount my driveshaft safety loop since I no longer have these mounting pads.

 

[Blake442]

Screw making one... for $40 I can just go buy one on eBay.

 

[patmckinneyracing]

Hey if ya got the material why not save the 40$. That way your only investing time, but not everyone has steel lying around either...

 

[FE3X CLONE]

Screw making one... for $40 I can just go buy one on eBay.

In my case, with the T56 no one made one to fit properly.

 

[3XBrownCutty]

Good ideas... I might be able to take some measurments and bend the 1/4" steel at my dads shop.

Is the stock stamped piece under the tunnel within 6" of the front u-joint ?

 

[G_Body_Enthusiast]

I would highly recommend finding a different spot to mount the loop. When I snapped my drive shaft in half, I had only the factory bracket bolted in. After this happened, it had broken the mounting pad away from the floor board on the passenger side and the driver side mounting pad was hanging on by one tack weld. I'm still coming up with a way to better mount my driveshaft safety loop since I no longer have these mounting pads.

maybe using the frame itself to put one in? since everything else, the engine transmission, etc is all connected to the frame and not the body i think it would make more sense to have a loop connected to the frame as well. not sure how feasible that is though.

 

[3XBrownCutty]

something like this could definitely be possible. i don't know it adding that extra 1/4" between the transmission and the transmission mount would throw off the driveshaft angle though.