Another Half Shaft question.....

[mjr5150]

Out of curiousity......has anyone broken their half-shafts with just Drag Radials(and some mods) or just Nitrous(and some mods) ....or has it always been a combination of both DR's with the violence of a nitrous shot ?? Can you make up for traction loss with pure power N/A to the max (Headers,hi-flow cats,CAI(I know this doesn't really matter),cat-back,P&P heads and intake ,PCM flash , TCM flash and now the Torque converter ?? And what if you(of course I mean I..)...add the quaife LSD ??? How much is too much ? I know noone knows for sure.....but can anyone take an educated guess if all of these things(like I said ...as naturally aspirated as you can get to date) will snap the shafts........even if you stay away from DR's and Nitrous ?? If the answer is no to snapping shafts...I'm surely headed for divorce court cus I'm getting all of the remaining pieces of the puzzle I don't have(the quaife and a T/C). Any body care to take a shot at this one if I've made any sense with my question here....................... -Mike .

I know the '' if you want to play ...you gotta pay '' mantra that holds true here . I'm just worried I'll end up at Chrysler for another set of stock half-shafts ....then not be able to use my mods again . Or should I just wait till stronger shafts are available ? Bad enough I'm (and everybody else has been waiting for proper programmable tuning and getting jerked around for years now with empty promises to the 6.1L owner)....but now with this half shaft drama.....I'm waiting to proceed futher than I already have . If I pop the motor somehow.........I'll go stroker ,forged or any of the other wonderful new options out there (sure glad I paid extra for my warranty.......I shoulda known I was not going to be able to control myself.... ) but I'd like to enjoy this one to the fullest first . End of bable.......anyone with superior knowledge to me.........probably most of you..... ....want to fathom a guess to the original question..........Is it just the DR's(and excessive traction they permit) combined with the violence of a nitrous shot that you suspect is causing shaft breakage ?? Am I headed to divorce court from adding more goodies (Torque converter and Quaife Diff)?? Tune in tomorrow for another episode of ''As the Hemi Turns"........... _Mike.

[greatone61]

HalV48 broke his this past weeked on DR's no nitrous. He also has the Quaife and high stall torque converter.

[srt8danno]

There have been so few that this has happened to or if there are more they’ve not reported it. Hal and Needforspeed are the two main ones who have reported this failure. Here are some threads that may shed some light.


Frozen axles

http://www.300cforums.com/forums/srt...ght=half+shaft

http://www.300cforums.com/forums/srt...ght=half+shaft

Broken half-shaft... (merged)

[mjr5150]

Those are the only one's I've seen too Danno.....like you said there could be more (just not members of this forum). So Greatone61.....sorry to hear about further troubles for Hal......he must be getting sick of it . stevesrt8 posted in another thread that the new torque converters will be easier on the stock shafts and should not cause breakage . So it looks like DR's and the Quaife ?? Just trying to narrow it down . It's definately traction related.....but it's never been a fear on any of the other cars I've owned . Wonder if everyone agrees Steve said is accurate if just the T/C is the way to go for now ? No Quaife........no DR's ??

[greatone61]

My opinion...its could be many different combo's, one...a high stall TC coupled with the Quaife is probably the "deadliest", your leaving the line at a higher RPM which equals more power. The Quaife will send the power to the tire that grips the most and boom thats where it breaks.
Another I think could be stress on the halfshafts over time, especially with NOS, unlike other F/I applications with NOS as soon as it is in the engine your getting a sudden jump in hp and torque which is going to kind of shock the halfshafts.

[Hyprspec]

The problem is how the power is delivered. Obviously with sticky tires and a lot of rotating power the energy has to go somewhere. IE the weakest point. How much power you put down is not the problem, the problem is when you start attempting to hook it up(as with DR's or slicks) The sudden Shock to halfshafts is whats breaking them. If you want' to avoid snapping your halfshafts you need to stay away from DR's and the higher stall. The dragstrip in notoriously stickier than the street. Things I can get away with the the track just produces tire smoke on the street.

A buddy of mine is running a turbo'ed 408 WS6, this thing makes over 850 to the wheels easily...he still has stock rear end and axels. Why doesn't he break his **** you ask? because he never tries to hook up. Meaning his tires are the weakest point. So when all the power comes out to play and starts looking to break ****, the first place it finds is the traction limit of the tires.

[Meister]

The Quaife differential is, IMO, the critical component. No one has broken an axle without it.

[mjr5150]

This makes alot of sense Hyprspec so thanks ..... . I guess it's to try to overcome tire slippage loss (especially in the 60') with pure power ....and lots of it !!

Originally Posted by Hyprspec

The problem is how the power is delivered. Obviously with sticky tires and a lot of rotating power the energy has to go somewhere. IE the weakest point. How much power you put down is not the problem, the problem is when you start attempting to hook it up(as with DR's or slicks) The sudden Shock to halfshafts is whats breaking them. If you want' to avoid snapping your halfshafts you need to stay away from DR's and the higher stall. The dragstrip in notoriously stickier than the street. Things I can get away with the the track just produces tire smoke on the street.

A buddy of mine is running a turbo'ed 408 WS6, this thing makes over 850 to the wheels easily...he still has stock rear end and axels. Why doesn't he break his **** you ask? because he never tries to hook up. Meaning his tires are the weakest point. So when all the power comes out to play and starts looking to break ****, the first place it finds is the traction limit of the tires.

[Hyprspec]

Originally Posted by Meister

The Quaife differential is, IMO, the critical component. No one has broken an axle without it.

No doubt, the differential's job is to add traction by forcing both wheels to turn, effectively almost doubling your traction. assuming your are doing what I call a "one legger" burnout. Where only one wheel is spinning.

[mjr5150]

Unless I'm reading his thread wrong Need4speed broke his on his SRT-8 charger the first time .....before he installed the quaife...... which only adds to the confusion (or at least mine) . Here is the original post.................


News break - Charger SRT8 snaps half-shaft...film at 11... - Dodge Charger Forums


This is his post on page 3 .....post 21.....where he thinks the quaife might actually help him.........so I am confused........... and no update ...although I think he broke one again after that . It's probably posted elsewhere ..just can't find it...................his post in the thread (below)...................

Thanks for the replys guys...

I do not have the Quaife installed yet - I was planning to do that next week.

Anyway, I went by the dealership today to visit the parts counter and this is the info I found...

Complete driver-side axle assembly - $970.00

Looks like I might get away cheaper then I thought though. I talked with the shop that I was going with to install the Quaife (Road & Race in WPB). They said since they have to remove the half-shafts to do the Quaife install that they wouldnt charge me to install the new half-shaft. So I ordered the Quaife and the half-shaft from them today - they should have everything on Monday. I got lucky and there is 1 driver side half-shaft in Orlando! So either Monday or Tuesday I'll toe the car to their shop and get everything done. Should have the car back by Wednesday. Looking forward to putting this whole ordeal behind me! I'm going camping with my kids this weekend (YMCA Indian Princess & Guides program), so I should be able to keep my mind off it.

Thanks for all the kind words guys! I really think the stock open diff was a BIG part of the problem! Hopefully with the Quaife installed along with probably replacing the Nitto drag radials with some better BFG drag radials - I'll be able to get my 11 sec. pass!!! I'm not done!!!
__________________
06 Charger SRT8
A few mods...

Originally Posted by Meister

The Quaife differential is, IMO, the critical component. No one has broken an axle without it.