Lowered truck + supercharger = OUCH - Axle flip beware - (Lengthy)

Smok][n · #1 09-24-2006, 03:27 AM

ok well i was out driving last weekend. made a u turn at a light and punched it coming out. got up to around 35 and SNAP! i hear a bunch of debris hit the underside of my truck and look back to my driveshaft rolling down the street

anyway, took a look at it and my yoke had broken:

ok well here's what we think happened. i did a 3/5 drop on my trck a year and a half ago. the rear drop consisted of flipping the axle over the leaf springs. by doing this, the manner in which the axle was kept imobile on the leaf springs changed.

the holes in the top of that plate welded to the axle used to keep the axle from being able rotate or shift on the springs. well the flip kits attempt at doing this using a different method apparently doesnt work too well.

i noticed as soon as i put my supercharger on that the rear end would shimmy during shifting. i, like a fool, ignored it for the past year. well what happened was this shimmying (sp?) was slowly loosening the nuts on my U-bolts. and i gues it finally allowed the axle to rotate up during WOT, thusly shattering my yoke, bending my belltech axle holder thingies, dropping the driveshaft and knocking the cpas off my rear u-joint....

ok well i was able to get the driveshaft balanced. i was also given a new yoke and rear u-joint. i repaired the bent and cracked brakets, reinforced the hell out of the axle-to-leaf spring connection. and put her back together. only cost me around $200 but took me about 10 hours for the repairs...

anyway all is fine now. the rear end shimmy is gone due to the reinforcement, and the truck drives better than ever. the moral of this story is: if you have or are planning on an axle flip type drop, make sure your kit is designed well enough to handle it. if not i can help on how to reinforce it. ill try to get some pics of it after it was finished.

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zachespo · #2 09-24-2006, 03:55 AM

Wow. That is nuts.
My dad brake his driveshaft about a month ago but it wasn't as cool as your explosion of parts (got wedged on a rock and just spun until it sheared off). But what really sucked is that he had to get an entire new shaft at $800.

Josiah · #3 09-24-2006, 04:01 AM

Sorry to hear about that but a great lesson in why axle wrap can be very damaging. I'm glad to hear it only cost a couple hundred in damages, can we get pics of the yoke detached? I'm trying to get an idea of how large it is, I thought it might snap on the diff side instead but you can play it out in your head where the wrap would place most of the force. Smack any of the laughing onlookers next time. Big kudo's for doing it yourself, thats the only way to play.

Matt 05'FX4 · #4 09-24-2006, 09:12 AM

Holy fuk dude! That is some scarry stuff right there......I know what kind of damage a free flying driveshaft can do under a vehicle and that scares the crap outta me. Good thing no more damage was done!

nuclearthreat54 · #5 09-24-2006, 11:59 AM

Get traction bars, a Carbon Fiber DS and a DS Safety Loop and you'll be set for next time. Probly be expensive tho

Stealth · #6 09-24-2006, 04:19 PM

Smok][n, so what did Belltech have to say about their flip kit design? I'm curious to hear.

Smok][n · #7 09-24-2006, 05:04 PM

yeah im lucky that i wasnt going very fast when the driveshaft came out, or that another car didnt hit it...

traction bars are something that im going to look into. and im going to make a driveshaft safety loop here probably next weekend. the guys did a pretty good job of repairing my driveshaft, so im gonna hold off on replacing it at least for now.

ill try to get some more pics today of everything. i havent contacted belltech about anything because im pretty sure it would be a waste of time. the fact is that the kit might be suitable for a stock truck, but the extra torque and firm shifts that my truck produces might have been too much for it. i had the axle flipped for 6 months prior to the supercharger install and never noticed anything strange before that. i would be curious to see what othe brands flip kits look like in comparison tho...

Stealth · #8 09-24-2006, 05:08 PM

Maybe some members with other brand flip kits will chime in and post some pics so we can have a look see. This is a curious topic since I'm looking into lowering. Who knows what's in store after that.

styxnpicks · #9 09-24-2006, 05:28 PM

man I'm glad I just went with dearched drop springs

etrevino103186 · #10 09-24-2006, 06:31 PM

i called 4wheelparts and they said set of procomp traction bars is 346.00 is a decent price?

sorry to highjack the thread but i had been noticing a little wrap on mine.

khendrix2374 · #11 09-24-2006, 09:07 PM

The instruction on for my Ground force flip kit said to torque the u-bolts to 81 ft-lbs.. I cranked em down alot harder than that and used some thread lock. I just checked everything in the back yesterday because I rotated my tires.

When I installed my kit, I thought about the whole alex not being as secure as it was when henry built it.

Some pics in my gallery. Looks the same as the Bell tech

Smok][n · #12 09-25-2006, 01:11 AM

im not sure what good prices on traction bars should be... im gonna look around and see what i can come up with.

yeah that ground force kit looks like the exact same setup. i think one thing i did was not tighten the the nuts on th u-bolts up quite enough. i got them as tight as i could during the original installation, but didnt use a breaker bar. i used a 4' steel tube as a breaker bar this time and got those babies tight as hell.

anyway heres some pics of what i did. sorry the pics are crappy beacuse of bad lighting and being phone pics...

ok heres what i did. i welded 2 peices of 3/8" thick by 3" wide steel together to make that top plate. i also cut a bolt and welded it throught the top plate to lock it in one of the holes on the axle plate. i then bolted 3/8" by 1.5" bars on either sie of the top plate. ran 4 8" bolts down around the leaf springs and bolted to more bars under the leaf springs. i also put steel tubes around the bolts in case the top plate bent down but was afraid to cut them to fit for fear of the axle turning a bit when i tightened it down.. i tightened the hell out of all the nuts and it bent some of the bars somewhat, but it seems strong as hell back there now. i just hope it holds ok...

oh and i also got a pic of my finished exhaust since ive never posted it befor