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 MPR my driveshaft exploded! do i have your attention i hope so. this is what we found. when this happend 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 alot of you are excceding the recomended 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 driveshaft now comes with larger caps and retainer rings! i will post pics of them too. i have no recorse 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 dont want any of you getting hurt. check you driveshafts if you have the old style hopfully the will do a recall i cant its too late but please if you racing moding to exceed the specs you should check into this. all others that just got the car for its pure beauty like i origianaly did you should be ok ! this only happend 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 no performance cars are ok ( ford dont 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
< Message edited by 28hopup -- 9/16/2006 8:58:43 PM >
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.
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 use that are going faster! if you dont race or tune the car removing the limets the car will be just fine. Im not trying to freak anyone out the forum has alot of fast cars that have removed the limits it 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 differant. 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?
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.
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?
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2005 V6 Convertible: K&N Aircharger CAI, 18" AR Casino Wheels w/Toyos, Black Calipers w/Decals, Magnaflow (Magnapacks) Dual Exhaust, Shorty Antenna, Custom Grille...Future Mods: X-CAL2, Eibach Pro springs, GT Rear Sway Bar
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.
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.
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Alert! Info on V6 Driveshafts - 
