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

[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.

[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!

[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.

[DER E30]

Dang that really sucks!

[DER E30]

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

THey did what? What parts did they use?

[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 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]

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.

the car has a welded 4.10 rear, with stock wheels and tires. 205/60/r15, I believe.

in all honesty, this stuff does help me out because it is more than plenty ammunition to go after this place if they decide to deny this was a product of anything other than their own faulty quality.

[poondobber]

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.

Right. Its the imbalance that lead to the failure. Having a heavy steel driveshaft makes this worse. The length kills it though. If it was a short stiff shaft with high imbalance it just would have vibrated the hell out of the car, possibly damaged the transmission or axle. That long shaft will bend right in the middle like a wet noodle.

Ujoints are actually the biggest cause of imbalance. If they are not centered they will whip the shaft around. They can take an absurd amount of abuse. I have seen ears torqued off the yokes due to torque and bearings fail due to high angles but imbalance will usually kill something else first.

[DER E30]

If my maths are correct you'd be spinning that shaft in the neighborhood of 4400-4500 rpm at 80.. That's pretty fast and a lot of inertia if you think about it. But I might be thinking about it the wrong way haha motor spin around 35-3600 rpm? lol

I don't think the diff being welded makes any difference to the driveshaft, but I WOULD NOT mention that to the driveshaft people if you haven't already...

[rice4life]

The R154 is affordable and can hold more power than a w58 in good condition. This wasn't a w58 problem, it seems like a crappy driveshaft issue. W58's can hold a bit over 400 if it's in good condition with thicker trans fluid and a good clutch.

Get your shaft balanced and have a professional welder overlook the custom driveshaft next time before installing it. If the welds aren't uniform and are suspiciously thicker in one location than the other, it could suggest a weakpoint in the construction of it.

You could balance it at home, but I wouldn't suggest it on a one piece. I would send it out to the DriveShaft shop for high speed balancing and consulting on shaft construction.

[poondobber]

The R154 is affordable and can hold more power than a w58 in good condition. This wasn't a w58 problem, it seems like a crappy driveshaft issue. W58's can hold a bit over 400 if it's in good condition with thicker trans fluid and a good clutch.

Get your shaft balanced and have a professional welder overlook the custom driveshaft next time before installing it. If the welds aren't uniform and are suspiciously thicker in one location than the other, it could suggest a weakpoint in the construction of it.

You could balance it at home, but I wouldn't suggest it on a one piece. I would send it out to the DriveShaft shop for high speed balancing and consulting on shaft construction.

Balancing at home is not a good idea. You cannot balance with yokes flopping around. A good shop will balance at high speed on a full assembly. If your shaft is spinning at 3000RPM while cruising you should balance at 3500 or 4000. I would only have a shop with balancing equipment weld a shaft. They will have the most experience and the right equipment. They may even weld on the same machine that balances. Chances are they have already made a shaft for your application as well.

[kibur]

What a shock. The shop who made the driveshaft claimed absolutely no responsibility for the driveshaft failure. The shop is Delaware Valley Truck Service, located at 5101 Unruh Ave in Philadelphia, PA.I dealt with three staff members. One was a man named John, who was more than kind considering the situation at hand. However there were two other men, who did not bear name tags, who were beyond condescending, rude and flat-out unprofessional.

The worst offender was an older man, I believe his name was Woody because I spoke to him on the phone. He was as condescending and awful to deal with in person as he was on the phone. He was the one who told me "there's no way a little 300hp Toyota did that", and continued to stick by that mantra. At first, he gave me a hard time for paint missing where the driveshaft hit the crossmember after it had failed. With X7 chassis cars, you have to route the driveshaft through the rear crossmember. This had nothing to do with why the driveshaft failed.

Another man, a younger guy with curly brown hair, basically kept telling me how the failure was my fault. He kept bragging about how the shop had $50,000 machines and there was no way the mistake was on their end, that it was a failure due to how I installed it. I knew this wasn't the case. He claimed that the slip yolk popped out of the transmission due to an improper install, and continued to blame me for the install being wrong, despite the fact that the slip yolk is embedded in the rear of the transmission. He told me that if he made me a new driveshaft, and the same thing happened, that it would be my fault, and implied once again that this was my fault and this is how I asked for the driveshaft to be made. I did not see him balance the first driveshaft, nor did I provide any emphasis on how it should be made - if it had been made properly, it would not have failed. Plain and simple - I took their word for it because I believed they were experts and because of that, I was not expecting it to fail.

At this point, Woody became downright rude. He kept laughing and smirking, which I became pretty annoyed with. I told him to wipe the smirk off his face, because there isn't anything funny about a failure this serious. Not only was I out the cost of the transmission, clutch and driveshaft, I now have to spend money in order to get the exhaust fixed, as well as adapting the new transmission. Furthermore, someone could have been seriously injured due to how violent the failure was. The money was obviously disappointing to lose, and the damaged parts were a bummer too, but it was most important that no one was injured, and furthermore, to have someone make light of how serious the failure of the part and the potential for injury was, is beyond unprofessional and completely uncalled for.

The shop refused to provide any sort of a refund, and even offered to discount me on a new driveshaft, but I told them there was no way that I was going to be using them again when these were the results of the first driveshaft. It was unbelievable to deal with a business that was so unprofessional and careless towards the mistakes they made. Clearly, they knew there was an issue if they were going to give me a discount towards a new driveshaft, I just don't understand how they could be so calloused as to laugh at a paying customer who clearly was not treated to quality service.

Here is a photo of what is left of the driveshaft. How can a shop, in good consciousness, blame a customer for such a disastrous failure? It is also interesting to note they make 2.5-5 million dollars per year in revenue, and are going to fight tooth and nail to blame a broke college student who worked all summer cutting lawns in humid, 100-degree Pennsylvania summer for a failure clearly caused by their poor manufacturing methods. Really pretty frustrated with what I've had to deal with in my experience with Delaware Valley Truck Service.

[ExpelI]

That is awful how they treated you, wish it could of turned out better. cars can always be fixed, glad you are unharmed

[rice4life]

Corporate carpet bomb them. Send a well written email with your concerns and complaints to the owner and CC every high level manager you can find at the business. If that gets you know where, threaten litigation for the parts needed for repairing the car, the driveshaft, and your time(if you couldn't make it to work due to a damaged car).

You can go to small claims court(won't need a lawyer and it won't be dragged out over more than a few days from filing to the appearance). Collect evidence(the driveshaft, damage to the car) and get written statements from professionals about how and why the driveshaft failed.