One Piece Driveshaft

[Dereku]

Hi Rick,

The reason for a two piece shaft, which is more costly is due to what we call critical speed of the driveshaft... Critical speed is where the driveshaft ends up like a jump rope. Not visible but it takes its toll on the transmission tailshaft, the U Joints and the pinion bearing in the rear axle. We had single piece shafts in the Econoline LWB...they were aluminum and 5.5" diameter...not packagable in Ranger... And with the aluminum dedicated the F150... likely there is a cost factor too....

Best,
Phil

I had a tail shaft housing explode on my last f150. Giant aluminum single piece driveshaft. It was either that, or the bronze bushing in the tailshaft housing that lacked decent lubrication that caused it. It was common enough when i called ford the part guy didn't even check stock. He said come in we have a dozen at least. Nothing here os scientific but I have never had an issue on my f250s with 2 piece. And they were subject to abuse that is beyond words.

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[MIBuckeye]

What I am curious about is how this compared to the Tremor driveshaft with the CV joint at the pumpkin.

I spoke to Tom about this for quite a while a couple months back. Sent him info on the rear CV joint and never heard back from him. He was hesitant to make a unit with the Tremor rear diff. When we spoke. I was a little disappointed in the nonresponse.

 

[awd.nv]

I spoke to Tim about this for quite a while a couple months back. Sent him info on the rear CV joint and never heard back from him. He was hesitant to make a unit with the Tremor rear diff. When we spoke. I was a little disappointed in the nonresponse.

Bummer. I will put this on the back burner if the two piece wears outside of warranty, maybe I will look into this again.

 

[landiscarrier]

Starting a Go-Fund me for this. Would appreciate any help. ??

 

[VegasRanger]

I was the first dude on here to go with a one piece driveshaft, I actually helped out the Tom Woods guys track down the flanges and shared info with them from a local shop who had already done a one piece and had experience on it. I had mine installed at 6,300 miles, and i'm at 17,000 miles now. No issues at all. That includes a lot of off-roading miles too. Fixed 95% of my vibration issues. Will I have issues down the road? Who knows, maybe. But the vibrations were driving me nuts.

I wouldn't hesitate going with a Tom Woods DS. They know what they're doing and spent tons of time on researching this.

Per the shops recommendation, I lube it every 3K.

You can search for my thread I posted a while back about my install for those interested.

 

[Mr Adventures]

I immediately ordered the Tom Woods driveshaft when it was made available earlier this week. It already shipped and will be here Saturday. I’ve been living with the vibration for way too long, can’t wait install this thing. Will post install pics and initial impressions soon!

 

[MountainGoat]

I immediately ordered the Tom Woods driveshaft when it was made available earlier this week. It already shipped and will be here Saturday. I’ve been living with the vibration for way too long, can’t wait install this thing. Will post install pics and initial impressions soon!

I immediately ordered the Tom Woods driveshaft when it was made available earlier this week. It already shipped and will be here Saturday. I’ve been living with the vibration for way too long, can’t wait install this thing. Will post install pics and initial impressions soon!

Did you order two?

 

[Jason B]

According to Tom Wood's site:

• The reason the carrier bearing is there on the stock shaft is to hold and support the drive shaft. It is not there for ground clearance. It doesn't actually help ground clearance by much if any. Here's why the carrier bearing is there. Imagine your drive shaft is a big pvc pipe, the faster spins the more likely it is to start to flex and bow under its own centrifugal force. The same thing can happen with a steel drive shaft just not as dramatic. The carrier bearing is there to prevent this from happening. The RPM at which the drive shaft might start to flex is basically what we'd call the "critical speed" of the drive shaft. From a technical engineering perspective this is probably not 100% accurate but that's the general concept.
• Removing the carrier bearing and converting to a single piece shaft changes the critical speed of the shaft. Even though the the single piece shaft works great, it is not without limitations. Namely, critical speed. This can become a problem if the drive shaft is spinning exceptionally fast. How fast the drive shaft is spinning depends on 3 things, vehicle speed, tire diameter, and ring and pinion gear ratio. We have a calculator below you can use to calculate drive shaft RPM at various speed. If you have re-geared your ring and pinion and you live somewhere that has high speed limits your drive shaft RPMs may be too high for the single piece shaft.
• Increasing tube diameter increases the critical speed. The larger a shaft is in diameter the higher the critical speed, because a bigger diameter tube is more rigid. Because of this, we have decided to build these shafts using a 4" diameter tube. But there as still limitations as to how fast you can safely run the shaft. If you expect regular drive shaft speeds of above 4,000 rpm the stock carrier bearing style shaft is the type of shaft you should be running. These are already pushed limits!

 

[Big Blue]

According to Tom Wood's site:

• The reason the carrier bearing is there on the stock shaft is to hold and support the drive shaft. It is not there for ground clearance. It doesn't actually help ground clearance by much if any. Here's why the carrier bearing is there. Imagine your drive shaft is a big pvc pipe, the faster spins the more likely it is to start to flex and bow under its own centrifugal force. The same thing can happen with a steel drive shaft just not as dramatic. The carrier bearing is there to prevent this from happening. The RPM at which the drive shaft might start to flex is basically what we'd call the "critical speed" of the drive shaft. From a technical engineering perspective this is probably not 100% accurate but that's the general concept.
• Removing the carrier bearing and converting to a single piece shaft changes the critical speed of the shaft. Even though the the single piece shaft works great, it is not without limitations. Namely, critical speed. This can become a problem if the drive shaft is spinning exceptionally fast. How fast the drive shaft is spinning depends on 3 things, vehicle speed, tire diameter, and ring and pinion gear ratio. We have a calculator below you can use to calculate drive shaft RPM at various speed. If you have re-geared your ring and pinion and you live somewhere that has high speed limits your drive shaft RPMs may be too high for the single piece shaft.
• Increasing tube diameter increases the critical speed. The larger a shaft is in diameter the higher the critical speed, because a bigger diameter tube is more rigid. Because of this, we have decided to build these shafts using a 4" diameter tube. But there as still limitations as to how fast you can safely run the shaft. If you expect regular drive shaft speeds of above 4,000 rpm the stock carrier bearing style shaft is the type of shaft you should be running. These are already pushed limits!

Very interesting, and direct from Tom Woods. On our Rangers 7th gear is straight through so the drive shaft is running at engine RPM. So, in 8th, 9th and 10th are overdrive and the shaft is going faster than the engine RPM. Would have to check the ratios to see how much. Could back figure using tire circumstance and rear end ratio to see at what speed you are hitting 4000 RPM. Ony phone so can't do the math right now.

Oh by the way the single piece shft may not affect ground clearance but it may affect breakover clearance.

 

[MountainGoat]

Very interesting, and direct from Tom Woods. On our Rangers 7th gear is straight through so the drive shaft is running at engine RPM. So, in 8th, 9th and 10th are overdrive and the shaft is going faster than the engine RPM. Would have to check the ratios to see how much. Could back figure using tire circumstance and rear end ratio to see at what speed you are hitting 4000 RPM. Ony phone so can't do the math right now.

I put 32" tires and our rear gear in his calculator the other day and it was just under 4000rpm at 100mph. So that means I can't go faster then that with this driveshaft?

Also all you guys ordering it says you have to measure first hope you're doing that.

 

[MIBuckeye]

So, Woods wouldn't bite on making one for the Tremor because the rear "ujoint" is a cv joint. Does anyone know of this is due to the Tremor alone or is it that way with just the locking rear diff?

 

[JohnnyO]

@P. A. Schilke talked about the one piece versus 2 in a thread awhile back , but i cant remember the reasoning , im interested also as mine is clunking from somewhere and that seems to be the bad guy , feels like i get tapped in the rear at a stoplight sometimes , i guess i should try lubing the slip joint first , dealer wouldn't do it...

Same here. Dealer says nothing is wrong.

 

[Jason B]

Very interesting, and direct from Tom Woods. On our Rangers 7th gear is straight through so the drive shaft is running at engine RPM. So, in 8th, 9th and 10th are overdrive and the shaft is going faster than the engine RPM. Would have to check the ratios to see how much. Could back figure using tire circumstance and rear end ratio to see at what speed you are hitting 4000 RPM. Ony phone so can't do the math right now.

Oh by the way the single piece shft may not affect ground clearance but it may affect breakover clearance.

Ranger A10 Gear ratios

 

[quangdog]

My new 1-piece shaft from Tom Woods showed up today, and I installed it this afternoon. The start-up shudder from the factory 2-piece drive shaft is gone! ? I took a bunch of pictures and some before/after video from under the truck. I have not had time to really even look at the video yet, other than to confirm I was able to capture the driveshaft wobbling in the center carrier bearing when pulling away from a dead stop. There is a small chance I'll be able to post some of that video tomorrow, but my travel schedule may get in the way for the next week.

Here are some pictures of the new shaft, comparison to old one, post-install, etc:

 

[quangdog]

Ok, I put together a quick video of the before and after:

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