I'M SORRY, GRANDMA: 1986 Cressida moneypit (I mean, project...)

[DER E30]

the belief that since they make driveshafts for big trucks there's no way one violently exploded on a "little 300hp toyota".

300hp is a different way to break it, there are at least 2 ways to break a shaft. 1 with just straight up twisting it by applying more tq to it than it can handle, and the second is harmonics. The guy above was correct. It literally has nothing to do with how much power your motor makes... Vibration and harmonics are what makes driveshafts fail... I think its usually the U joints themselves that fail but sometimes the long skinny shafts like that are ever so slightly imbalanced or whatever and the tube gets a harmonic vibration so strong that it can't handle it. Hence the explosion while you were cruising probably putting 50 or less hp to the ground to push the car a constant 80mph or whatever. This is the reason that most cars have a two piece shaft, breaking it in half, adding a joint and center bushing more than doubles the speed at which the shaft fails.
Sounds like the shaft wasn't stiff enough to handle the speed at which you spun it... If they used oem tube it might not have been thick enough or big enough to handle it.
http://www.4xshaft.com/vibrations.asp
http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...p/t-86581.html
also the u joints must be correctly oriented...

What is the rear end ratio and how tall are the tires you have? You are probably spinning it a good bit faster than a big truck does...

All that interesting stuff doesn't help you out any though... sucks.

[kibur]

Dang that really sucks!

They did what? What parts did they use?

I was under the impression they were just going to be using the ends of it and the rest would be a new driveshaft that would have been capable of handling power, but who knows what really went on. I'm really not excited to have to fight with this place of business in order to get things rectified, they are adamant in the belief that since they make driveshafts for big trucks there's no way one violently exploded on a "little 300hp toyota".

[DER E30]

the driveshaft was made from an OEM two-piece driveshaft..

THey did what? What parts did they use?

[DER E30]

Dang that really sucks!

[kibur]

Ex-driveshaft engineer here. I dont know much about Cressidas but I can tell you a few things about driveshafts.

A couple things tipped me off in your post. The first was "heavy duty one piece driveshaft". Since you do not have a tractor, heavy duty is not necessarily a good thing. The second was the picture of a very long and skinny driveshaft. Long and skinny do not go together. Lastly you were going 80 when it let loose.

What happened was your long skinny heavy driveshaft started to resonate at high RPM and turned nto a jump rope. This is due to the low stiffness and high weight of the long steel driveshaft. There a few ways to increase stiffness. 1) switch to aluminum, 2) increase the diameter, 3) shorten the driveshaft or make it into a two piece.

Appears you replaced an OEM two piece driveshaft designed for high RPM with a one piece design that could not handle it. Typically when a two piece shaft is replaced with a one piece it is made larger in diameter and out of Al or carbon fiber. The shop that made it should have known better.

Glad to see that no one was hurt. This could have ended a lot worse than it did.

hey, thank you so much for this information. the place that made the driveshaft has found my receipt, but is still requiring me to bring them what is left of the driveshaft. the driveshaft was made from an OEM two-piece driveshaft. however, I was under the impression that they were going to just use the splines in order to make sure it went into the output shaft and differential. it is a shame that this happened, especially when my intention behind getting a one-piece driveshaft was to avoid something exactly like this.

[kibur]

Holy goddamn shit bro. Atleast you are good. I mean, like .................................... woah.

yeah. I am very glad no one was injured. hopefully I can bounce back from the damage and make this car better than ever.

holy titbals,
no es beuno amigo. unfortunately i cant help out with the japanese stuf. goodluck m8

thanks, I like your e28

Have you considered a bmw e36 zf transmission? They are super strong. You'd need an adapter plate from the engine to the trans (400 bucks), a bmw flywheel and clutch (pretty cheap used, the bmw flywheel bolts to the 1j directly I'm pretty sure), and some sort of custom driveshaft. All in all it might not be that cheap, but they are pretty solid transmissions.

thats not a bad idea. I've considered doing a e36 zf or a e46 6-speed, but I think I will end up doing the aisin AR5, which is a pontiac solstice/saturn sky transmission. aisin manufactures both the r154 and the ar5, and there are a lot of similarities amongst the two. I got information from a local drifter who could not have been more kind and helpful. he runs the ar5 in his e36, which also has a vvti 1jz. many of the parts needed to adapt an ar5 would also be needed to adapt an r154, so I think I'm going to end up going with the ar5 instead. I will keep this thread updated on what it needs to be adapted, hoping to get the ball rolling on the process as soon as possible!

[I_Haz.:R32]

Have you considered a bmw e36 zf transmission? They are super strong. You'd need an adapter plate from the engine to the trans (400 bucks), a bmw flywheel and clutch (pretty cheap used, the bmw flywheel bolts to the 1j directly I'm pretty sure), and some sort of custom driveshaft. All in all it might not be that cheap, but they are pretty solid transmissions.

[poondobber]

Ex-driveshaft engineer here. I dont know much about Cressidas but I can tell you a few things about driveshafts.

A couple things tipped me off in your post. The first was "heavy duty one piece driveshaft". Since you do not have a tractor, heavy duty is not necessarily a good thing. The second was the picture of a very long and skinny driveshaft. Long and skinny do not go together. Lastly you were going 80 when it let loose.

What happened was your long skinny heavy driveshaft started to resonate at high RPM and turned nto a jump rope. This is due to the low stiffness and high weight of the long steel driveshaft. There a few ways to increase stiffness. 1) switch to aluminum, 2) increase the diameter, 3) shorten the driveshaft or make it into a two piece.

Appears you replaced an OEM two piece driveshaft designed for high RPM with a one piece design that could not handle it. Typically when a two piece shaft is replaced with a one piece it is made larger in diameter and out of Al or carbon fiber. The shop that made it should have known better.

Glad to see that no one was hurt. This could have ended a lot worse than it did.

[fpsthomas]

holy titbals,
no es beuno amigo. unfortunately i cant help out with the japanese stuf. goodluck m8

[Tate]

Holy goddamn shit bro. Atleast you are good. I mean, like .................................... woah.

[kibur]

I guess I'll pick up where I left off with this build thread. Once again, I'm typing into this when I should be doing homework, but oh well, there is a lot I need to get off my chest.

After having the intercooler all set up, I began to finish up smaller items such as the battery relocation with a friend of mine who is able to do wiring work. He helped me with these last few bits. The wiring turned out to have no issues, and the human error was on my end. The folks at Panicwire were more than helpful with getting the issues I had resolved and the wiring harness they made was plug and play.



At the end of July, the front end was back on the car and everything was ready to go. On July 30th, the car fired for the first time, but I was going to find out that this didn't mean it was ready to hit the road. There were some idling issues that still needed to be sorted out, but it was still amazing to hear the sound of the motor for the first time.

Throughout the course of the next month, we sorted out other issues. The slave cylinder had failed from sitting, and it was replaced. We went to bleed the clutch, and the master had also failed from sitting. Both were replaced with OEM Aisin parts, and the clutch was feeling good. After bleeding the clutch, the brakes were next to be bled. Of course, one of the bleeder screws in the rear was so old and rusty from sitting that it snapped.



This is where, once again, I was reminded of how fun trying to build an X7 chassis is. None of the usual autoparts dealers (pep boys, advance auto, national, etc.) carried the calipers I needed. Cardone, despite having a remanufacturing location nearby to me, had no Cressida calipers in stock and it would be over a week for them to rebuild mine. I was so desperate that I called the dealership, and they told me that Toyota had long discontinued making the parts.

Luckily, a friend of mine, Marty, came to the rescue bigtime. Though he had sold his MK2 supra, he contacted the guy who he sold it to. That fella had recently parted one, and he had the calipers I needed. I drove an hour and a half each way, made sure the bleeder screws could break loose, bought them, and then drove back. That night, the calipers were painstakingly installed. Though the mk2 rears do work on an mx73, it is not a direct replacement, and was quite interesting to install and bleed successfully. The next day, the car was driven for the first time.




Later that day, I drove the car up to the exhaust shop. The next morning, the exhaust was finished, and I took my car out for a spin with Marty as a thank you for locating the calipers. Within a few days, the car was completely legal and ready to hit the road. It felt great finally being able to share the car with many of my close friends who had been there by my side, either providing words of encouragement or a helping hand.


My MX73 and Marty's Te75 Corolla liftback.

I got to take a few people out in the car, including my dad. My father and I don't have the closest of relationships, but I could tell he appreciated the amount of hard work that went into the swap, making sure everything was quality and also realizing that the thing was indeed pretty damn fast. I don't think he realized how much it meant to see him acknowledge all of my hard work. I also got to take out some of my best friends during the course of the next week, but unfortunately school started back up so I didn't get as much time to enjoy it as I would have hoped.



Another friend of mine, DJ, drove down from Connecticut to pick up some parts, and took some awesome photos of it while I was hanging out with him. DJ also appreciates older cars and was there providing encouragement from almost the very start in order to finish this project, as well as general encouragement.

But then, like so many times with this car, the moments of sweetness were about to come to an all-too-abrupt halt.



This past Sunday, I was driving upstate with my roommates Jeremy and Aidan, in order to work on Jeremy's 240sx. We are on the turnpike, cruising along, when all of a sudden, there is a loud bang, but not just like any loud noise. It was a catastrophic failure that sounded like a bomb went off. Dust flew up into the air, my insurance papers in the center console flew up and the center console flew up in so violently that it was completely broken. It was safe to say that things were not looking too good.



I'm pulled over on the side of the road, and I call AAA. They dispatch someone, and 15 minutes later, I get a call saying that AAA cannot tow me off the turnpike, but they will send a tow company that can. That's right, the PA turnpike comission struck a contract in order to only allow one certain towing company to have the rights to tow those broken down on the turnpike. One can be broken down off the turnpike, and take it to the next destination using the turnpike, but if you break down on the actual turnpike itself, you're basically really really really boned. Gotta love this example of capitalism at its finest, where the state sells your right to being towed away to one company so they can benefit.

This tow truck driver shows up, and there are no words to describe this guy other than a completely incompetent asshole. Despite the fact that my AAA membership was valid, I didn't have a valid card on me. I called my father to ask for a picture of his valid card, to which the tow truck driver said he could not use because despite the fact we have the same name, and are on the same membership/account, the middle initial is different and therefore it cannot be used. $93 later, the tow truck driver then drove us to the nearest exit off the turnpike, and dropped our car off. He told me to call AAA again and get another tow home. Unbelievable how a program designated to help you in times of issue can leave you completely stranded, but it incredibly got worse before it got better.



The AAA driver drops us off right outside of Allentown, in the middle of freakin' nowhere. While I'm walking on a journey for food with my roommate Jeremy, my phone is charging in the car. Aidan calls us to inform that after over an hour of being at this location, AAA has dispatched a tow truck, but it cannot fit all of us. Wonderful. I call back AAA and ask them how they can expect people to only break down with one other person in the car, and their response was pretty much "we cover our members and one other passenger, everyone else can pretty much get lost."

Again, its really awesome to learn about all of AAA's stipulations while you're stranded on the side of the road, being transferred from tow truck to tow truck, and this is all occuring while I am trying to process the fact that the car I finally got on the road after almost two years of being built has just blown up after not even finishing the maiden tank of gas. The last tow driver however, was awesome. He could not have been nicer and more accommodating, despite the issues that AAA had created for all of us.

Later that night, I am dropping the car off and kind of demoralized. I had work to do the next day, Labor Day, and I was not feeling like messing with the car. My friend Alex, who helped me store and build the car in the first place, was nice enough to send me pictures the next day when there was light out. The findings were rather shocking, and he described that "it looked like a bomb went off".





The driveshaft, which was supposed to be a heavy-duty one piece driveshaft, had exploded. Though I have been down at school, I am eager to get back home and assess exactly what went wrong, as well as take more pictures of the damage and removed said damaged equipment. I know that this has caused damage to the chassis, the brand new exhaust, and has damaged the output shaft beyond repair. The gears in my w58 are still good, and it shifts fine. The clutch feels strong and holds pressure, but because of the damage to the output shaft, the transmission is unusable.



Going to lose a massive amount of money due to this failure. I am going to lose money on a $440 clutch which barely got 300 miles of use on it, $300 driveshaft that was destroyed and not to mention the massive amounts of money I will be shelling out in order to fix the damage to the chassis, exhaust and upgrading the transmission. I will likely need a new bellhousing, clutch, flywheel and driveshaft, and there is a likely possibility I will need new mounts as well.

The shop who made the driveshaft is a heavy-duty truck company that creates products for large industrial sized trucks. I personally enjoy supporting local and smaller businesses if I can, but this clearly was a bad decision. I have called the shop and so far, they are refusing to take any responsibility. They said sending pictures of the driveshaft will do no good, and they also are claiming they have no record of my purchase, which I KNOW is a bullshit fucking lie. I have to pull the driveshaft and bring it to them, and pray that I can find some sort of an invoice for the driveshaft. I don't think I have the printed receipt, nor do I have time to really look for it, as I am up to my eyeballs with school and now trying to figure out adapting a transmission upgrade as soon as possible. Of course, I doubt they are going to be willing to admit they have a record of my work being performed, despite the fact I remember going through a lot of time and effort giving them my information and remember them plugging the information in. I will not name them unless they decide to play games with me, but if they decide to give me the runaround, I'll drag their name through the mud in a rather public manner. This kind of quality is unacceptable and frankly, unsafe. The driveshaft quite literally exploded at about 80mph, and I am lucky that no one was harmed because of it.

As of right now, the goal is to fix stuff up and hopefully make it to h2o. But its looking like that is even far fetched. if anyone has an idea of what it takes to adapt an Aisin AR5 to a 1JZ, I'd love some help, as it seems that transmission is the cheapest modern transmission capable of handling a 1jz.

[kibur]

post the good news feggit

Does it turn fuel into noise?

it goes brapapapap stustustu

Aaron spilled the beans. I've finally got this thing running. Bigger post will come soon, I've barely been in front of a computer since school ended due to work and trying to finish this.

I love the Cressy

Whats the dealio with this thang?

What do you mean? I'd be happy to answer any questions regarding the car

[Scape-Zs]

Whats the dealio with this thang?

[Greasy63]

I love the Cressy

[bdkawey]

it goes brapapapap stustustu