Home made custom half shafts

[mattswabb]

Just thinking ahead for future projects. To put in the G25MR tranny you need to find a cable operated tranny and an intermediate shaft from a turbo capri or 323 gt. Not an easy task. Then you can buy the half shafts from a 323 GT.

The escort GT and Protege are more readily available. The hydraulic clutch has now been done and seems easy to do. What I'm wondering is if you found an EGT or protege tranny complete with the shafts. Then cut the shafts in half and toss away the ends that go into the hubs. Then cut off the hub end from a 323 gt shaft (or even the festiva shaft). Fabricate a sleeve that is bored to the shaft outer diameters and slip it all together and tig weld them.

Would this work? Not sure if it would affect the material properties enough to make the shaft weaker.

matt

[FB71]

I'm already doing something similar for my 2.5 Duratec / MTX75 swap. I'm using Contour inners and EGT outers. I haven't yet had access to the machines I'd like to use for this, so I haven't done it yet, but here's my plan. Cut the two sections of shaft to the correct lengths (tbd). Chuck each one into a lathe, machine the larger of the two shafts to the diameter of the smaller at the cut end, and machine the cut end to a 45deg bevel, resembling a pencil point. V-block both pieces on a machining table, point to point, center to center, parallel and level with one another. MIG the points together, rotating the shaft as you weld. Continue to build the weld out from the center until the joint is flush at both ends. Machine the weld smooth, slide a section of steel tube over the shaft joint, and mig both ends of the tube to the shaft. I should be doing this sometime this spring/summer.

[EVOGUN]

You can do as you both suggested, how do you think GTiR shafts fit in the front of my car!

If you tig them and preheat them you should be fine. Machine to a pencil point and jig them together with tig(mig may not penetrate enough to keep them strong. under extreme HP/TQ they may break but you could cryo them to distress the joint. Or over kill, tig a sleeve over top like you both suggested. Just make sure they are balanced if you add that much metal.

Thanks :wink: