Torque tube inner shaft kit

[HIGHTOWER611]

The greatly missed Dick Spadaro used to have a kit to make your own inner drive shaft. Speedway also used to have one. Does anybody know of a current supplier?
The picture is from Dicks website.

[Lawrie]

when and if you find another supplier let me know,I have on of Dicks in my 33 and was one of the main contributing factors in getting rid of the drive line vibs,
Lawrie

[HIGHTOWER611]

Anybody have any information?

[john in illinois]

I do not think anyone offers a kit. I had to make one with driveshaft tubing and the correct ends. A driveshaft shop can do this.

John

[Matt in Alameda]

I am presently having a drive shaft made for a 1935 Ford by using heavy wall drawn tubing and fitting/welding the end pieces in from a stock 1935 drive shaft. Then it will be balanced....The reason is that I need a drive shaft 2 1/16" shorter than stock for my 3 speed plus overdrive 1982 Ford F150 transmission conversion. Doing it this way will cost less than half of what it would have cost to shorten the original tube. Good luck on your project.....Matt in Alameda

[JM 35 Sedan]

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Several years ago I was selling 35 to 38 Ford hollow tube type drive shafts to folks who wanted to make their own traditional lake headers. To reduce the cost of shipping, I would cut those drive shafts in half at center, chuck the halves in a lathe, and cut the welds that held the splined ends in place. Then drive the front and back splined ends out of the tubes. I sold these splined ends separately to guys who wanted to make custom drive shafts like Matt in Alameda is doing, which basically accomplishes the same thing as the Dick Spadaro drive shaft kit.

[HIGHTOWER611]

Originally Posted by JM 35 Sedan

Several years ago I was selling 35 to 38 Ford hollow tube type drive shafts to folks who wanted to make their own traditional lake headers. To reduce the cost of shipping, I would cut those drive shafts in half at center, chuck the halves in a lathe, and cut the welds that held the splined ends in place. Then drive the front and back splined ends out of the tubes. I sold these splined ends separately to guy who wanted to make custom drive shafts like Matt in Alameda is doing, which basically accomplishes the same thing as the Dick Spadaro drive shaft kit.

That is a great idea. And a cheaper option as well. Thanks to all for the responses.

[cas3]

perhaps you've seen my other post to suggest the speedway kit which i now know does not exist. i too have to make a drive shaft. i bought a 10 spline coupler on line for half what the vendors want, then went to shop for tubing. the local farm place that makes pto shafts could not come up with the right size, so i went to another place that only builds drive shafts only to find they dont have it either. its been a few months back so the sizes dont come to mind, but ford used a heavier wall for that size tube that is available. this all the DOM- drawn over mandrel tube that is claimed to be the only thing acceptable. to get the same wall thickness you need to go bigger, so the coupler is too small, or go thinner wall and cut the coupler to fit and keep the burn outs to a minimum. my friend who is a airplane guy says 4130 tubing is just as good, much more options in that market for sizes. the other problem with making my own is i'm not sure i've ever seen a good front shaft to cut off and weld into a bushing , then on the shaft. every one i have is bad on the front bearing race. i even ran an add on the model A adds for a front 18" or so, beca.use the A's have a weak design on the back, four million were made, but no response. i had finally thought to just buy the speedway kit and be done.... but i guess not. there was a thread on the hamb with the original 32-3-4 wall thickness

[rotorwrench]

I'm not sure if Dick made those himself or if he contracted them out to a machine shop. The shaft can be cut out on a lathe and the splines can be cut on a horizontal mill with the aid of a rotating indexable tool holding device. If further hardening of the finished shaft is needed, it can be done by any number of companies that specialize in heat treatment processes. The rear piece can be made from a 10-spline to 6-spline adapter. A thick wall chrome moly tube will work but there are other seamless thick wall tube types that might work just as well. It just needs to be able to withstand the applied torque of a healthy flathead.

It is difficult to find the old tube type drive shafts in good condition these days.

[HIGHTOWER611]

It looks like I have tracked down the remaining stock of Dick Spadaros' kits. There are supposedly 6 and 12 spline available. I need some feedback to find out if there is demand for these. If so, I may be able to purchase some or all. I have not got into talking money yet but the ones last sold by Speedway(now obsolete item) were $329 in their old catalog. You can PM if you prefer or give feedback here.

[PeteVS]

I'm currently working on a Model A project and I have a '40 rear for it. Does anyone have an opinion on using a solid driveshaft with a 6 spline at both ends? I'm thinking it would be shorter than an "A" driveshaft (by a little) and could possibly get by without a center bearing. It might wind up being less expensive than welding up a tubular assembly.

[JM 35 Sedan]

Originally Posted by HIGHTOWER611

It looks like I have tracked down the remaining stock of Dick Spadaros' kits. There are supposedly 6 and 12 spline available. I need some feedback to find out if there is demand for these. If so, I may be able to purchase some or all. I have not got into talking money yet but the ones last sold by Speedway(now obsolete item) were $329 in their old catalog. You can PM if you prefer or give feedback here.

It sounds like Lawrie might be interested in one based on his #2 post on this thread.
When Dick was doing a survey on various forums asking if we thought this driveshaft kit would be something folks would be interested in purchasing at ~ $300.00-350.00, I replied that the idea was great, but I could do basically the same thing for my needs at less than half of what he was considering charging. Not sure how big of a seller these kits were for Dick or Speedway.

[PeteVS]

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

I'm not sure if Dick made those himself or if he contracted them out to a machine shop. The shaft can be cut out on a lathe and the splines can be cut on a horizontal mill with the aid of a rotating indexable tool holding device. If further hardening of the finished shaft is needed, it can be done by any number of companies that specialize in heat treatment processes. The rear piece can be made from a 10-spline to 6-spline adapter. A thick wall chrome moly tube will work but there are other seamless thick wall tube types that might work just as well. It just needs to be able to withstand the applied torque of a healthy flathead.

It is difficult to find the old tube type drive shafts in good condition these days.

I'm pretty sure that when I talked to Dick, he told me that he had Winters making them up for him. If that's the case, Winters must have the drawings, etc needed for manufacture.

[RalphM]

I've got a Speedway kit in my AV8, I wish they still offered them. But as said, with the right parts you can make your own.

[rotorwrench]

They would be easy to reverse engineer if a person has one in hand. I purchased one of the old type ends from JM 35 Sedan. If I had a horizontal mill and an index, I could probably make one but then again it might be easier to take it to a larger machine shop and let them do it. They have the big stuff that can easily cut the splines plus most of the tooling to make life easier. I don't know what it would cost but at least it wouldn't be unobtainium.

Mention of solid shafts without a center bearing on post 11, It depends on shaft construction and length of shaft. The model A types got away with it because it was part of the pinion and it was short but FoMoCo found later that they whip too much when suspended between pinion and U-joint. I've seen this on a lot of solid shafts and even some hollow ones. The helicopters generally always have segmented shafts with multiple carrier bearings or they have a center damper bearing on long drive systems like for tail rotor drive.

[PeteVS]

Originally Posted by rotorwrench

Mention of solid shafts without a center bearing on post 11, It depends on shaft construction and length of shaft. The model A types got away with it because it was part of the pinion and it was short but FoMoCo found later that they whip too much when suspended between pinion and U-joint. I've seen this on a lot of solid shafts and even some hollow ones. The helicopters generally always have segmented shafts with multiple carrier bearings or they have a center damper bearing on long drive systems like for tail rotor drive.

Thanks for the advice.
Pete