Boob

Need some help here guys. Took my 99 apart on Friday night to replace torque tube bushings. To start the night off, the diff fluid had a small amount of metal in it - JOY. Then we start having problems getting the torque tube out even though everything is disconnected. After some prying and shaking it does come out revealing the cause. The area here my McLeod twin disc clutch rides on the splines of the propshaft had been HAMMERED, almost to the point of punching literally through the splines. This happened on both areas where the clutch discs ride. Now I'm def not puting that back in. My question regards how to prevent this in the future. I assume one option is to replace just the prop shaft piece and stay with torque tube setup. Problem is, I don't want to replace with a stock piece to have this happen again. Is there a harder/upgraded prop shaft?

If I was to get a carbonfiber driveshaft do they come with better splined prop shafts?

Mods are:
383 nitrous kit awaiting install
Mclleod Twin Disc
DTE brace
Pfadt tranny/diff mount
Hadn't really seen this type of damage before.

ajg1915

Pictures would be helpful.

Boob

I'll try to get some. Left everything under the car at that point.

Here's my best description:
The splines are normally parallel. The splines on the Torque tube I removed are perfectly parallel except where the McLeod Twin disc rode on them. Where it was riding on the splines is pushed over to the other side of the spline. I guess pics would be very helpful.

I called ECS. They suggested I go with stock piece as they've never heard of this before.

Fastbird

Are you saying the splines are twisting??? Post up some pics, what you're describing is intriguing.

Boob

I have pics now but don't know how to post them. Could I email them to someone?

ajg1915

send them to ajg5@aol.com and I'll post them.

Fastbird

Go to www.photobucket.com, sign up for a free account, you can host pics on line, then use the "IMG" code an dpost that here to get the pics in the post.

Boob

Pics sent! Thanks for the help.

ajg1915

FRC Joe

Yikes! How do the splines in the clutch disks look?

Fastbird

WOW. That's a lot of wear. WTF man???? How does that even happen?? Too wide of a gap in the clutch disc splines causing a repeated bashing wearing on the input shaft splines?

Boob

My hypothesis:

This part has 120k miles on it. About 60k of that was at this power level in this setup. I don't think many people drive their stuff this many miles at this power level.

I'll examine the clutch/have it rebuilt if it needs it. Guess I'll have to get a stock piece if I can and replace it. If not, might as well get a driveshaft. Not like this thing is going to get less powerful.

I plan to pull the torque tube apart in about 2 hours and pull the clutch out as well. Will update with additional findings.

0Jeff @ TPE

Hey Dude..

Ive seen that before with an RPS clutch. It happened twice to Al (formerly of LAPD and DTS). Using the same clutch. I dont know if it came from using that clutch, or if it was operator error. I just know it happened.

He had to replace the shaft and the clutch.

ajg1915

Certainly a strange occurence.

madmatt9471

Dang! How hard is the Nitrous hitting?

Perhaps there might be an upgrade for you!

Keep us informed as to where you go with it

Thanks,Matt

corvettebob1

Common problem with automatics on the stator shaft, check your old shaft for case hardness I bet it's less then 40RC.
If it is have a new one checked and if it's low too get it induction hardened to around 58RC.

Z06wanted

Wow that's crazy.

nmp27

I had 2 of those areas on my manual tranny setup (spec twin disk) but that was after 25000 miles on the combo

not uncommon

tail_lights

JMBLOWNWS6

IMO Its normal from taking an *** beating. Mine buddies looked the same way.