Driveshaft Safety Loop Q's

[intocarss]

Originally Posted by TheJDMan

An X pipe MIGHT keep the drive shaft from hitting the ground or, more likely, the DS would simply rip the exhaust out from under the car. Regardless, the X pipe would do nothing to prevent the shaft from tearing through the floorboard. In any case an X pipe would never be considered an alternative for the DS loop by any santioning body.

I was never saying to use the X pipe in place of a DS loop

[gevette]

Let me give you my 2 cent experience with d-loops. Drag racing in the lat 80's I broke the front yoke at about 75 mph. It totally demolished the turbo 400 tail shaft and broke the mount dropping the engine and trans down; it ripped the Lakewood flat strap style loop out of the floor (bolted in the stock floor pan of my 67 Firebird). Luckily I was not hurt just my wallet. In 2002 racing the same car I broke a driveshaft at 160 mph. I had a tubular front loop and it was destroyed. The shaft can openered the floor but a double frame rail next to my leg saved me from major bodily damage. 3/4 of the shaft exited out the back of the car. The noise was horrendous and after that day I installed a full 4130 enclosure that went from front yoke to the rear yoke in addition to front and rear loops. Do not skimp on the loop!

[67Rally]

Just an update...I ended up making a driveshaft safety loop out of 1/4"x2-1/2" steel plate. I got the solid loop from Jegs, and the rest is bar stock. I mounted this between the T56 mount and the trans itself. I thought I'd get lucky and make a straight run back, but the loop needed to be about 1" higher than the front mount.

Jegs loop:


Bar stock:




Basic shapes:


This is what I came up with:




Here it is installed:





Notice the hack job on the exhaust H-Pipe. That's not my work, and yes I paid to have that done. When I get back from Jamaica, it's going to a real exhaust shop and I'm having them install a Magnaflow X-Pipe, with new pipe running from the new headers to the existing Magnaflow mufflers.

[redss86]

Keep it to the front. If you break a front u joint, the shaft is still bolted to the pinion...there is no way to stop the pinion from spinning. Plus the flying front end is to close to me for comfort. If you break a rear joint, your first reaction will be to put it in neutral, or push in the clutch. Therefore removing the force that is spinning it. Also, the transmission has a slip joint, so the broken shaft will more than likely slip out.

Just my .02,
Joe