Driveshaft Rebuild Showstopper

[Dan B]

Here I am, with a nice shiny, painted driveshaft and all the parts needed in order to fully rebuild it. I picked it up off the parts pile after accidentally shearing the rivets in the original housing trying to get out the Babbitt bushing. Anyone notice what it’s missing?

Hint: It’s on my old driveshaft but there’s apparently no way to get it off!! Am I overlooking something obvious?

Looks like I’ll be posting a classified ad for a good COMPLETE driveshaft.

[Adam]

You could re-rivet your old tube. A tapered mandrel driven in will hold the heads from the inside. You do the rear rivets first and then the front ones. Easy to make a mandrel, but you need a lathe.

[Dan B]

Good thought but tried multiple times to re-rivet old housing using an old driveshaft as the bucking bar. The problem was getting the rivet heads up against the radius of the inside of the tube tight enough. Tried multiple different head types. We thought we got around that problem, but then there was not enough clearance from the rivet head to driveshaft.

This all started with the “drop the socket in” technique which should have been done with more care. Chalk it up to a beginners mistake. But all four rivet heads sheared. Looking up this topic on the forum, you will see multiple posts with the same end result. Makes me wonder how many people have done it and never realized that they in fact sheared off the rivets.

[Erik Barrett]

Second attempt at posting. Hope two of them don’t pop up. Anyway, I have been there. Working late one night shortening a driveshaft tube for a Warford I forgot to put the four bolt collar back on the tube before welding the flange back on. Rats. I sliced the collar in two and welded it back together on the tube. Worked great.

[Dan B]

Erik - Sorry to hear of your troubles but I guess I’m in good company with this kind of mistake.

Great idea on cutting and rewelding the ring. I think I’m going to give that a shot before moving on.

[Les Schubert]

Consider just one cut in the ring and then “spiral” it off and on. Use the narrowest cutting tool you can find.

[Dan B]

We split the ring with a hacksaw. The plan is to use a spare ball cap and bolts to hold the two pieces true, tack weld them and then finish welding them down the shaft where there is more room and less chance of damaging the ball cap area.

[Allan]

Dan, I did a similar dopey thing when rebuilding the handbrake cross shaft on Henrietta, my barn find buckboard. The lever was loose on the shaft, so I took the opportunity to rebuild the worn shaft with some bronze where it ran in the frame bracket. I got it filed nicely down to fit the bracket, and the fitted the worn lever with a new pin. The looseness in that fit was cured by adding some bronze there also. I was quite proud of my handiwork, until I came to refit the assembly. I had left the frame mounting bracket off! Rather than do more damage trying to remove and refit the lever, I slit the frame bracket, opened it up with heat to get it over the shaft and then closed it down again and welded it shut. After filing the welds, hitting the new metal with soldering flux to accelerate the rusting process, it all looks good again.

Allan from down under.

[Henry K. Lee]

I think everyone who has cut down a driveshaft in their life has done this! Let me raise my hand to join the club!

Hank

[Ruxstel24]

Just curious, is that not a 26-27 torque tube ?

[Dan B]

That was the only spare driveshaft I had. Fortunately, I’m rebuilding a ‘26-‘27 large drum Ruckstell.

[Retro54]

Again, dad and I will learn from your car when working on mine! Now get that together so we can get my rear axle in the jig! Haha kidding brother!