Twisted Halfshaft.. =(

[Roadkill]

I twisted the passenger halfshaft tonight to resemble a licorice stick.. I thought my tire blew out initially. When I looked under the car, the halfshaft twisted to the point where the splines separated from the wheel. Pretty crazy stuff considering I am running a stock motor. Any input on what new halfshafts run or should I just upgrade to beefier halfshafts? (anyone have em for sale?)
Thnx!

 

[RX VIPER]

Re: Twisted Halfshaft.. =(

The Unitrax are much stronger than stock. Sorry to hear about that and glad to hear you didn't loose control. Were you getting on it pretty hard? How fast were you going when it happened? Your not the 1st person I've heard this happen to on a stock motor. Try Jon B.

 

[PETSN8K]

Gen I half shafts are notorious for twisting even on a stock motor. This happened to my '95 a while back. Gen II shafts are redesigned and much stronger. You could do what I did and purchase a set of used gen II shafts and use them. They work great, especially on a stock (or near stock) motor.

 

[Tom Welch]

Give us a call for your HD Halfshaft needs. In stock and ready for delivery, guaranteed against breakage for 90 days!

Tom

 

[jkracer9]

Tom
Guaranteed against breakage for 90 day's except on the track or still 90 day's? If they are the same ones that are on your Viper and have not twisted off by now then they must be good.(heavy duty. )

 

[99 R/T 10]

Aren't Unitrax guaranteed for life?

 

[Roadkill]

Gen I half shafts are notorious for twisting even on a stock motor. This happened to my '95 a while back. Gen II shafts are redesigned and much stronger. You could do what I did and purchase a set of used gen II shafts and use them. They work great, especially on a stock (or near stock) motor.

Any Idea if I get them replaced under warranty if they use the Gen II shafts for replacement??

to answer the other question.. I was doing about 75 mph when the failure happened.. I thought initially I blew a tire.. I heard a loud pop then bang bang bang... As the halfshaft twisted, it pulled the splines out of the rear wheel carriage. I need to look at it again today in the light to see if there was any additional damage.

 

[RedSnakeGTS]

Aren't Unitrax guaranteed for life?

yes they are! cant beat that. cost around the same as BTRs as well

 

[PETSN8K]

I don't think your warranty will cover half shafts. If you somehow do get them covered under warranty, they will use the genII shafts. The part number for the genII shafts overides the discontinued genI shafts (that was my understanding).

 

[Tom Welch]

JK,

Yep, same set for the last 5 years! No breakage!

The wall thickness of factory halfshafts is their weak link. The weak link in aftermarket heavy duty half shafts is a combination of the U-Joint (there is only ONE available on the market) and/or "wheel hop" which is that teeth jarring feeling you get from spinning the tires at improper rpms. No U-JOINT...and I repeat, NO U-JOINT can survive severe wheel hop. I've seen ALL brands broke before, and none are indestructable. You cannot go wrong with Unitrax or our shafts, if both offer a warranty...its nice to have a choice!

As for warranty on half shafts, I believe that we are the only ones who offer one, we were definately the first to offer a warranty of any kind on these ********* racing parts.

Our halfshafts are now being offered by other tuners as well, like Macedo Motorsports as an example.

We are currently running a sale price on Halfshafts at $ 699.00.

Best of luck in your search.

Tom

 

[varanus]

I got the unitrax halfshafts and are very happy with them on my sc viper. I would rccomend them highly and it seems most people upgrading halfshafts have gone with unitrax.

 

[SJT97GTS]

I went Unitrax, couldn't be more happy. I would suggest them!

 

[DEVILDOG]

Unitrax.

 

[ChoiceViper]

I went down to Unitrax about a month ago, since they were right down the street, and ended up ordering a set of light weight, heavy duty half shafts (their best). They told me two weeks max and i'm still waiting. Called 'em yesterday and they said "about another week."
Let's hope for the best....

 

[ndvipergtsr]

If you need a stock set i have a set out of a 96 gts you can have for 50.00 plus shipping. E-mail me if you need them. [email protected]

 

[Roadkill]

ndvipergtsr,
Please check your email! Thanks much!

 

[Jack B]

I have been running the BTR half-shafts with 800 rwftlbs and the ET slicks with no problems to date. The combination produced a 1.45 sixty at Norwalk on Saturday.

 

[Roadkill]

Ok.. trying to post a pict of the carnage..

 

[sbkim]

i also heard a loud pop but only when I downshifted from 3rd to 2nd at pretty low speeds. I heard it once more during another downshift. The car still drives fine. WHat could cause such loud pop in drive train? Improper rpm during shift, maybe?

Thanks

 

[AviP]

Gruesome image. That should be posted on rotten.com

 

[sbkim]

Checked my halfshaft and they do not look normal - ie nothing like that up above. Has anyone else heard loud pop before? What causes this?

Thanks

 

[IEATVETS]

Hope nothing else is wrong with your car roadkill. Glad you didn't get hurt also. Makes me wonder about my shafts.

 

[rgavitt2002]

Hey guys, I upgraded my halfshafts to Unitrax thru JonB. Heard a loud pop at the track, looked, could not see anything, gingerly went home. Made it to a mile of the house and lost a halfshaft. Problem was a cracked U-Joint. Warranty on these shafts were 1 year. I was out by 2 months. Called JonB, who put me on a conference call with Unitrax. They (both JonB and Unitrax were awesome! Cost me a little for parts but they comped labor.I alos ordered safety straps which I HIGHLY recomend if you are going to change shafts. JUst FYI.
RG

 

[sbkim]

This is certainly disconcerning... I guess visual inspection may be difficult if there is a crack. Are OEM parts covered under warranty?

 

[2002_Viper_GTS_ACR]

Checked my halfshaft and they do not look normal - ie nothing like that up above. Has anyone else heard loud pop before? What causes this?

Thanks

Yes, I had this happen on down shifts, and really hard up shifts, or starting from a stop. It was a Ujoint on the drivers side going bad, it DID eventually BREAK. I noticed it and was getting ready to go to my viper tech before it failed, but as I was leaving my drive way, it finally broke. Janni and Henry Cone to the resque, they loaned me a spare one, got it to my Viper Tech, and they were replaced under warranty.

To be safe, I have bought the Unitrax VSP's since my car was getting SC'ed.

Jon

 

[sbkim]

Jon - thank you for the info! GOod to know it's covered under warranty.

Why do these break so easily? What can I do to avoid breakage other than driving like grandma mosses???

 

[2002_Viper_GTS_ACR]

Mine didnt actually "break easily" I mean I have about 200 passes down the drag strip with them. so I cant blame them for breaking. NA they stood up great, but replacing them every 25k under warranty wasnt appealing to me, so I just got a better set.

Jon

 

[Roadkill]

Wow.. blast from the past post..
I changed the straps and bolts when i put in new halfshafts. The halfshafts are covered under warranty, but since i got such a great deal on two, i just bought them and replaced both. After talking to Chuck Tator, I found out on the gen I cars that this was not so uncommon to have happen. I compared the later model halfshafts to the earlier and they are quite a bit beefier. The noise you heard could have been a u joint going out.. as 2002 viper gts said. Best bet is to jack the car up , crawl under and get a good look. Ieatvets, you might want to see about getting a set of low mile '96 or later halfshafts just for the peace of mind if you like to do hard launches.

 

[sbkim]

Roadkill - thanks for the info. I checked my u-joint and there is absolutely nothing visibly wrong with it. No unusual plays etc. Could this have been a loud backfire? Thank god for extended warranty

 

[Tom Welch]

A simple method to keep an eye on your stock shafts is to take a ruler and paint stick and scribe a line along the body of the tube portion of your shaft. Should you see the line starting to appear to be bending....they are about to go the way of the buffalo.

I don't care what aftermarket shaft you choose, they are all subject to breakage if the correct (incorrect) application is applied to them or more specifically the U-Joint. Our shafts have a very sucessfull racing record and our list of customers is long and noteworthy...a few of them are;

Lee Saunders: 9.62 at 149 mph
Norm Koerner: 10.00 at 140+ mph (world record N/A Viper)
George Bryce: 10.20 LPE Viper GTS
Various [******] 650R and Up 9 and 10 second Vipers
Various Macedo Motorsports Vipers
Various BTR Performance Vipers

For a complete list and/or customer contacts feel free to contact me at my shop.

Thanks,

Tom