Ok so i am tired as heck but im home i will make this short!. as most of you know i am the test mule for the x-charger. and yesterday while on the dyno at around 118 MPH my drive shaft exploded! do i have your attention i hope so. this is what we found. when this happened i was 100 miles away and could not do anything but find Dave from explorer express a new shaft and wait. all day and all night i speculated on why. after long talks with my 2 ford buddy and rygen, screamin and kurtv6 i kinda came to the conclusion that the v6 drive shaft was a piece of crap ( no duh ) any way my ford bud did notice that the new one had a new part number. Hum, so i showed up today and on the floor was the shaft broken in two and both u joints apart. as it turns out the 05 v6 drive shaft just presses in the u joint caps. at high rpm 110 plus the caps start to come out. (i will post pics soon)

The u joints and the mounts are fine they did not break at the high rpm the caps shifted and the u joint simply cam out. i tell you all this because i know a lot of you are exceeding the recommended speed, we use to think that it was only the tires but its not. the up side to the story is i am alive no one was hurt except my car and they have fixed the drive shaft, oh yea did i mention the new drive shaft now comes with larger caps and retainer rings! i will post pics of them too. i have no recourse with ford i am not going after them i am owning up to the fact that the car was going faster than it should have. i say this because you are all my family and i don't want any of you getting hurt. check you drive shafts if you have the old style hopefully the will do a recall i cant its too late but please if your racing / modding to exceed the specs you should check into this. all others that just got the car for its pure beauty like i originally did you should be OK ! this only happened because the car was going too dam fast 110 to 120
thank you i hope this helps you. i will be posting a complete update later but i just got home and felt this had to be said

again non performance cars are OK ( ford don't sue me!) but for all you gear heads and you know who you are! this is important.


EDIT: Subject line title changed to make this a sticky - 28hopup

Thanks for the warning. I may see about getting a custom driveshaft made soon.

i was real glad to see the new one had clips

ORIGINAL: afixer

i was real glad to see the new one had clips


Hey, how much was the new one?

285 but that is dealer retail is around 400

ORIGINAL: afixer

285 but that is dealer retail is around 400


Holy crap! A buddy of mine told me I should be able to get a custom driveshaft made for around $200. I'm going to call and see.

sorry, i know this is a dumb question but what does MPR stand for?

ORIGINAL: chrisc

sorry, i know this is a dumb question but what does MPR stand for?


I think he meant MPH.

so is this something we have to be aware of regardless of a f/i application?

im gona get mine done .. if it will come out at 110, it will come out at any other speed too...

Afixer thanks for the warning and the details, I had posted on another forum under TJ06 about installing driveshaft safty loops (and planned on installing them with my charger insatall) back in February and also another note Ford put the gas right next to the driveshaft.

http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index.php?showtopic=44677


I would even put the safety loops with a power adder even with a new drive shaft because U joints can still let go.

yes sorry im real tired mph and it came out at about 118 but i think she was up to 130 if you keep the car within speck under the 112 limit you will be fine. ford would not leave it out there if it was a prob this is just a warning to all of us that are going faster! if you don't race or tune the car removing the limits the car will be just fine. I'm not trying to freak anyone out the forum has a lot of fast cars that have removed the limits if this fails and that has been done ford will know it is only for guy like me that are going stupid fast and if we would have known this was a prob we would have done the dyno different. am i clear on this STOCK CAR = OK GO FAST CAR YOU SHOULD LOOK INTO THIS ! AND FOR ALL I KNOW THIS WAS FIXED LAST YEAR. MY CAR BUILD DATE WAS 1/6/05 NEW CAR HAVE THE NEW ONES. just look under the car if the u joints have clips its the upgraded one!

Enlighten me...where exactly do the drive shaft loops go and what is the intended purpose?

ORIGINAL: KiLLeR_WoMBaT

Enlighten me...where exactly do the drive shaft loops go and what is the intended purpose?



One goes near the front of the drive shaft and one goes near the rear they are metal loops that bolt to bottom of your car and the and your driveshaft spins between in the middle of the loops, if the u joint lets go without the safty loops when drag racing it will do a lot of damage under you car and poss flip your car over. But remember the gas tank is right next to the driveshaft on these Mustangs. The safety loop will help contain this it is a must have per track regulation/rule I think when running slicks at the tracks. But I would install them even with DR's but IMO for me I will even install them for racing at the track even if I was using street tires for a couple reasons. The u joints on this six one would think wasn't intended or tested for all the HP & TQ we are going to be throwing at them with a power added and even good u joints let go.

i have a pic the drive shaft smacked the crap out of the tank but the fiberglass cover saved it!

ORIGINAL: TJ


ORIGINAL: KiLLeR_WoMBaT

Enlighten me...where exactly do the drive shaft loops go and what is the intended purpose?



One goes near the front of the drive shaft and one goes near the rear, if the u joint lets go without the safty loops when drag racing it will do a lot of damage under you car and poss flip your car over. But remember the gas tank is right next to the driveshaft on these Mustangs. The safety loop will help contain this it is a must per have with track regulation I think when running slicks at the tracks. But I would install them even with DR's but IMO for me I will even install them for racing at the track even if I was using street tires.


Thanks! So they just hold the busted, flying drive shaft pieces in and keep them from flying down the track and possibly rupturing your gas tank?

Afixer--would these have been any benefit to you in your situation?

yes the driver side muffler is flat on the top ! it hit hard if i would have had single exhaust ti would have hit the floor and prob bounced around and mybe came thru the center console.

My stang is an 06, so i should be fine right? or should i just look under to make sure.

ORIGINAL: Trill Gear Head

My stang is an 06, so i should be fine right? or should i just look under to make sure.


same question

I just went out and checked mine. It's the staked variety with a build date of 9/2/05. I think I'll be investing in an upgraded shaft before pursuing a power adder.

Rob

We need pics! Part numbers, too!

If you could post a pic of the old caps vs the new caps, that would be awesome!

I'm not sure what to look for under mine.... I got mine in Feb of 05, so I'm assuming it's the older part.

Afixer...sorry bout your car, glad it's fixed though and nothing more serious/bad to you happened...thanks for the heads up...It'll be awhile before mine is up to your level but it's good to know...

I have a new 06 also...should we be alright? and how dependable even are the new 06 shafts?

Where's the numbers on the drive shaft and how can you tell if it's a good one?

Wow, that sucks. I feel for you.

Are your shafts like ours? Ours are actually a 2pc assembly.

ok heres is the new the old the broken shft the flanges and some of the damage. notice on the new unit the nice clips and notice on the old how far they were popping out.

local://upfiles/14019/8D2CA01B96B842FBB2E0263A1FA94819.jpg

local://upfiles/14019/BBF0D8CDC3C14B52B18CCDA754DE1D64.jpg

local://upfiles/14019/6177C006C0F94EDDAEBDA2FE4B74EC2E.jpg

local://upfiles/14019/952B17F7036041B58D8ABB9EB963CF25.jpg

local://upfiles/14019/91813C4C041345DC8CCF3649AEDC11B2.jpg

got trq? got power? no matter what, you can still say your car has so much power it broke the f****** driveshaft, that will shut a lot of people up LOL

yea but i wish it haddent happened. i posting this keeps it from anyone else . that helps i guess

Now that is something.....GM has used injected plastic to keep the caps in place for years no problems that I have ever heard of. So Ford just staked the caps in place? I will be changing my shaft out directly, if it could fail for you it could fail for the rest of us also. I'm not going to assume it's an isolated incident, and apparently Ford new it was not a good plan or they wouldn't have redesigned the shaft. As far as them recalling the car, I doubt that would happen, the bean counters would say the probability of this happening is remote, but not impossible. So they decided to design a new shaft for all newer Mustangs. Do you have the new Part Number? I don't want to wait until the shaft beats the hell out of the bottom of the car on the interstate one day.........that would be REAL bad......thank you thank you for the heads up[sm=smiley20.gif]

i thought i took a pic of it on the ground when i get home later ill jack it up and see if i can get a pic of the tag. ill have the number tomarrow its basicly the same number but it has a 06 supplement. as far a failure i cant stress this enough. im sure regular diving is ok. THE FALIURE WAS NOT UNDER REGULAR DRIVING. and that would be fors defence. the average guy or gal would never get it up that fast. i have to go run an erand ill be back in a couple of hours

I quess my point is the type of failure you experienced, should NEVER happen. I have seen U joints break, shafts twisted in half, but never have I ever heard of the joint throwing the caps out of the yoke, only one reason that happens, POOR design. Ford has NO defence for such a failure, the caps should never come out of the yoke, I don't care how fast you are going. You have done us all a great favor, Ford would never let it be known that the driveshaft has a "potential" problem and apparently Ford engineers thought it may cause a problem or they would never spend the money to redesign it. I will be changing mine out before it decides to come apart......again I thank you for the heads up. EDIT: I just inspected my driveshaft, the caps are staked in about every 1/8 inch around the circumference. Obviously it is not sufficent in all applications. I also wonder about an iterference fit between the yoke and the cap, if yours walked out past the staking just because you exceeded the programmed top speed of the car by 15 MPH perhaps there is no interference fit at all. In any event you may be correct, that normal folks won't have a probelm, obviously Ford feels that way. I'll still opt for the new shaft and "C" clips.

cool and that was just why i posted it . Information! not to scare everyone into parking the car till they fix it. this is a little off topic so i dont get in trouble but.







DANG THIS CAR IS BAD ASS FAST NOW!

ORIGINAL: afixer

cool and that was just why i posted it . Information! not to scare everyone into parking the car till they fix it. this is a little off topic so i dont get in trouble but.

DANG THIS CAR IS BAD ASS FAST NOW!


More videos please!

So if we go to the dealer we have to pay to change out the drivshaft for the new one or will they give us one under warranty? [&:]

maybe its a silly idea but what if we use metal hose clamps or 2 on each ujoint to keep the caps in place. Not sure how much flex the joint needs and if any interference but seems like it will at list keep the caps from coming out.

the drive shaft that is in there is within specs it if fine under normal conditions so i would say no!
this info is just for people that want to go fast and are taking the responability that comes with that. the car sould be fine under 100 which is well under the limiter that ford put on it.
remember most speed limits max out at 75 so if you go faster than that you are basicly breaking the law. ford dont need to warentee for that!

ORIGINAL: GGIII

Wow, that sucks. I feel for you.

Are your shafts like ours? Ours are actually a 2pc assembly.


No, the V6 one is a single driveshaft.

Umm......you wouldn't have to know if this happens to pre 05 V6s would you, like the sn95s?

GLAD I GOT AN '06!! Hopefully they have the better shafts...
Tom

ORIGINAL: Torch_Vert

No, the V6 one is a single driveshaft.


Wrong. They're 2-piece. At least mine is.....

yup 2 piece

So, I'm wondering... is it a snazzy idea to upgrade the driveshaft before supercharging? How do you know if you have the older style? When did Ford switch?

I was watching Pinks a few minutes ago... looked like a pair of early 80's stangs were going at it... one blew his drive train and a piece of something flew right through his hood! Left a huge 2.5" hole! :D

I know I'm ressurecting an old thread but I want to know what some of you all think. I'm getting bad vibration from my driveshaft after my 4.10 gears were installed at about 85 plus. I guess with the higher ration the driveshaft when spinning for 85mph is more like 120 plus with stock gears. Now when I bring this issue up with the dealer, they will of course not know about my gear swap unles they drive the car or open up the rear end which wont happen. But this is what I'm wondering about, on one hand since the car is limited at 120 as long as the vibration would have happened with stock gears before this then Ford would have to warranty the shaft am I right on that? It doesn't make sense to me that since US roads only go up to 75 that they can use that as a warranty cut off, what if I have my own little track I want to run around at 115, I don't see how Ford would be able to hide bhind the 75mph speed limit. A more likely issue is that if they find out about the gears they will try to use them as an excuse, but if you look at the brochures for the cars one of the advantages they list for the solid rear axle is the ease of swapping out gears, so if they are condoning or at least using something like that as a selling point, something such as increase driveshaft speed should be a reasonable thing to cover whether new gears are in or not. Does any of that sounds reasonable? I just want to figure out how I'm going to bring this up with the dealership, Ideally I'll get the newly designed driveshafts under warranty.

Play dumb and just say you're getting a vibration at freeway speeds and you heard of this issue and the fact that Ford made a mid-year fix and you want it too. You got nothing to loose! Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
ORIGINAL: Stewart

I know I'm ressurecting an old thread but I want to know what some of you all think. I'm getting bad vibration from my driveshaft after my 4.10 gears were installed at about 85 plus. I guess with the higher ration the driveshaft when spinning for 85mph is more like 120 plus with stock gears. Now when I bring this issue up with the dealer, they will of course not know about my gear swap unles they drive the car or open up the rear end which wont happen. But this is what I'm wondering about, on one hand since the car is limited at 120 as long as the vibration would have happened with stock gears before this then Ford would have to warranty the shaft am I right on that? It doesn't make sense to me that since US roads only go up to 75 that they can use that as a warranty cut off, what if I have my own little track I want to run around at 115, I don't see how Ford would be able to hide bhind the 75mph speed limit. A more likely issue is that if they find out about the gears they will try to use them as an excuse, but if you look at the brochures for the cars one of the advantages they list for the solid rear axle is the ease of swapping out gears, so if they are condoning or at least using something like that as a selling point, something such as increase driveshaft speed should be a reasonable thing to cover whether new gears are in or not. Does any of that sounds reasonable? I just want to figure out how I'm going to bring this up with the dealership, Ideally I'll get the newly designed driveshafts under warranty.

I'm glad to hear you're okay.

EDIT: Wow, definitely didn't look at the dates of these posts... -_-

How can you tell when your car was made during the model year's run? The vin only lists the year... then of course you get your car's serial number. So I guess the higher the number, the later in the year, right? (I know this is an old thread, but it does sound important, and I am kinda new in here.) -- so, around what serial number would you say they made mid-year changes?

I am addicted to this forum now.
-pete

Thanks for the warning. i will have to look at my drive shaft.

yea marty has an 06 and its still the old one. it just seams when they ran out they made the change.

STUPID QUESTION? I noticed that afixer said he has an X-charger?... what kind of supercharger do you have??? I'm looking into superchargers for my V6 and all I've found was the Procharger stage 2 so i've been looking into that.

PETE,

Look inside the drivers door at the build plate, it should have the date of your build on it.

The ProCharger had CARB certification when it was released. I think the Vortech just got it. The X-Charger should have it soon.

It's only an issue if you live in California... (CMIIW)

Are there any updates to an aftermarket shaft?

Here is the driveshaft that i purchased from Powerhouse.

local://upfiles/12700/9BA31AFE397142739CB53772FA6BC9FC.jpg

local://upfiles/12700/2E6F89C309D34AE5892987C1339638C0.jpg

Here is mine and the POS stock one
http://www.gessford.com/cobra/images/Heim-04124.JPG

I have the 05 but it does have the clips holding it in place, should I still be as worried?

Rob

Are the new shafts still 2 piece?

My 06 has the two piece with clips on the universals.

SOHC



local://upfiles/62156/A6F0FE443BD04082945E974847300320.jpg

See post #54. My car is a 2007, same driveshaft, they just added clipssame asyours.

does anyone have any idea at what point in the build year they switched? or i mite as well jus climb underneath and have a peek

look under its kindof random

where would that be i have re read this whole thread? is it a seperate thread somewhere? sorrry i am just trying to make sure if i am safe or not

mine was built in may of 2006 am i safe? and if so how much more of a speed or power can the new one take?

Crawl under the car. Look to see if there are little clips on the end of the round caps on the U-joint. If so you are good.

Sorry, I'm trying to read everything here... how can you tell if you have one of the driveshafts that are prone to breaking? I really have no intentions now of taking the girl that fast but would like to know how to identify the shafts before they started replacing them.... I want to know what I have on my girl. I got my car in May of last year so it has to be the early version but wanted to know what to look for specifically.
Thanks!

You could start by reading the post above yours..[sm=icon_beat.gif]

Ok, Ok... be easy on a newbie <grin>!

I got mine in Aug of 05, its an 06 model. and yep it does NOT have clips. But the u joint does have channels or grooves in the joint ends outboard from where the caps have been "pressed' in exactly where clips would fit if there were any. I wonder if i can just get a set of spring clips to fit ? Any body tried this?

got a link to the source of that Powerhouse driveshaft??

did ford ever change this on the newer v6 mustangs? is it still a concern?

Yeah, did Ford change it on the '07 & '08 models? Also a picture would be very helpful.....I didn't read all 4 pages so if one is posted, I apologize.

No, Ford did not change anything. Yesterday the drivetrain on my 2007 Mustang V6 convertible broke at a speed between 100 and 110 mph. I luckily survived and there was not much damage to the underside. I shall post fotos and further iformation tomorow.

Well, there are two reasons to replace the driveshaft now.....high speeds and it will come apart and it does rust. Although, it is not likely that I will be pushing it over 80 mphanytime soon.

ORIGINAL: 07 Stang

Well, there are two reasons to replace the driveshaft now.....high speeds and it will come apart and it does rust. Although, it is not likely that I will be pushing it over 80 mphanytime soon.


3 reasons, the stock POS is also a heavy mother.

I ordered my Mustang V6 convertible (Manual shift) in November 2006. It was produced in January 2007, delivered in Florida in March 2007 and shiped to Europe in May. I consider it a sports-car and I did not buy it for going 55 to 70mph top speed. (There is no general speed-limit on German Autobahns. Supposed street conditions are good, dry surface, not much traffic I frequently go more than 120 mph with other cars.)

My Mustang has the clips but at speeds above 125 mph the driveshaft startet vibrating. So I did not drive faster than 110 mph which is below the factory set speed-limiter. When passing another car at around 105 mph vibrations startet, I immediately deaccelerated, but it was too late, driveshaft blew away.

I took the broken driveshaft to a company specialising in building and rebuildung driveshafts for race-cars and oldtimers near cologne. People there said they had never seen anything like this. As reason for the disintegration they suspect spotty production quality and faulty balancing. They can rebuild it and think they can do a better job than by just having it replaced with a new stock driveshaft. However they are concerned that there is no middle bearing.

As far as I know, the V8 comes with a driveshaft that has a middle bearing. They recommended to put in the middle bearing from the V8 as well as the corresponding driveshaft. I think the V8 driveshaft has a different length, using it would, if possible at all, require some kind of modification to it. Has anybody in this forum any experience/information about this problem ? Maybe somebody can tell me the exact length of the V8 driveshaft and the position of the middle bearing. ( I cannot ask Ford in Germany because Mustangs are not sold by Ford in Germany and not covered by any warranty in Europe.)

is a driveshaft easy to install?

is a driveshaft easy to install?

Yes, no problem. You just need to lift the car and use a torque wrench. Should be done in half an hour at most.

I also drive my 06 coupe on the german autobahn. When I read this article first, I decided to change for a pha aluminium driveshaft before setting the limiter off. I´ll install it within the next few days.
@roland : I´m glad to hear that you`re not hurt.

Silly question but how does the speed have anything to do with the failure? Wouldn't the RPM's be more the issue? I can't imagine that the DS knows whether it's in first or fifth gear. What were the RPM's when things blew apart?

The driveshaft is traveling atthe same RPM as the pinion gear. In a stock v6 that is the tire revs x ~3.07 I believe.

5th gear usually is direct transmission. 5th gear in Mustang V6 Manual has an overdrive. A common 5th gear overdrive in those gearboxes is factor 0,9 ( Driveshaft rpm = engine rpm x 0,9 ) Does anybody know the exact overdrive ratio in 5th gear ?

thought you guys might be interested in this thread i just posted.
http://www.mustangforums.com/m_3871276/tm.htm

not to sound like a tard, but could someone put the whole u joint and caps thing into laymen's terms or put some line and circles on the pictures so i can look on my 05 v6. (i did go 112 in my car and now it does vibrate, so idk if they are coming out or what)

ne one?