Unitrax Heavy Duty Half shafts?

[BADVENOM]

As some of my fellow viper owners know I am presently undergoing a DLM S/C upgrade and as many have already experienced the list of mods keeps growing..lol.
Anyway my question is with apx 700-750RWHP is it necessary or just smart to upgrade the half shafts to deal with those Hp #'s. I understand that if tracking and adding sticky rubber would definetly neccesitate the upgrade but what if the car is basically street and only tracked occasionally.. Opinions and Benefits greatly appreciated...


Adam

[GaryA]

If you have stock half shafts right now, it's not "if" but "when" you will break them with that kind of power.

You should definitely upgrade them.

[GTSnake]

Why would you want to run the risk? If you know that's the achilles heal just upgrade them now. You don't want to be stuck out somewhere far from home with a broken shaft right?

[ntmatter]

On the other hand, you may want to consider the half shafts as a sort of fuseable link - I'd rather break a shaft than tear up my differential or transmission. Unless you're running it hard on the track all the time, I'd consider just installing driveline loops against the chance that they do break and keep them in place.

A

[GaryA]

On the other hand, you may want to consider the half shafts as a sort of fuseable link - I'd rather break a shaft than tear up my differential or transmission. Unless you're running it hard on the track all the time, I'd consider just installing driveline loops against the chance that they do break and keep them in place.

A

The half shafts are a "fuseable link" but with the kind of HP that Adam's going to put down, they will become nearly useless if he wants to put that kind of power to the road. Why have all that HP if you're afraid of breaking halfshafts?

I broke two halfshafts with a lot less power than Adam is talking about. Once on the street and once on the strip. Either way it's never a good idea to break a halfshaft (for safety or performance reasons).

[BADVENOM]

So if the half shaft are the fusible link would the damage that could occur either to the tranny or differentials be worst than the cost to replace the half shafts? The other thing Im looking at is reliability and longevity of the cars components running these power #'s on the car.

[SylvanSRT]

my guess is only if you do a lot of the drag racing and very hard starts, and are using slicks, road course work and you are prob ok. I also agree w/ ntmatter about wanting a weakest link much better off breaking a half shaft than tearing up the drivetrain on the car think of it as a "fuse or circut breaker" that hopefully you dont trigger.

[GaryA]

Ok, this is my last post in this thread. Replacing the halfshafts is cheaper than replacing the differential or the transmission. However, popping a halfshaft can be dangerous in many circumstances. Why would you want to break anything in the powertrain?

The transmission, differential, and halfshafts can all be destroyed in certain circumstances with the power you're talking about. The guys that are happy to have a "fusible link" (i.e., weaker halfshafts) don't have the kind of power that you're talking about and probably have never broken a halfshaft before. Why take the chance?

Even with heavy duty halfshafts, you can still break them with the power you're talking about (under the right scenario).

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2000 Black RT/10
Heffner 1000SCi 843 rwhp 792 rwtq 10.20 ET @ 141 MPH
Heffner Performance - Home of the World's First 9-second supercharged Viper!

[BADVENOM]

Thanks Gary for the input. Emailed doug to find out cost/installation while the car is there and his input!

Adam

[RedSnakeGTS]

i broke my half shaft, and lucky for me, i was where i had some buddies with me, and a trailer to get my car home. IT SUCKS! your car wont move, so why have a stock half shaft on there just to serve as a weak link?

[Jack B]

If you are coming out of first gear and hit second and blow your fusible link I hope you don't hit the wall.

[Lee00blacksilverGTS]

I would be willing to bet any amount of money that Doug or Jason or any good tuner would say change them out. I seem to recall Jason telling me that even with mild mods. I would be risking breaking the stockers if I was launching and shifting really hard.

[ntmatter]

The damage caused by breaking a half shaft would be mitigated considerably (I won't say totally, just to be safe) by installing some hoops to contain them. I believe these are required in any case if you're running in the 10's. As to how much it sucks if you have to get towed home after breaking a shaft - the same applies ten times over if you detonate your entire transmission assembly because you're trying to preserve a $300 half shaft. This would be sort of like using a 100 amp fuse on your headlight circuit because you're more worried about preserving the fuse than preserving the headlight.

In the original post, Adam's talking about a car with a bunch of power but one that is not taken regularly to the track. In this instance, it is appropriate (IMO) to leave the shafts as-is with driveline hoops as a backup. This will preserve the expensive transmission and differential in case of an accident or mistake made during the occasional drag. For a hardcore racer who's running 900 HP on slicks and is at the track all the time, then a full build-out of the driveline would be appropriate, with beefier halfshafts as part of that package.

[Jack B]

The problem is not the damage caused by the initial breaking of the half-shafts. If they break when you are under acceleration the torque steer could throw you into the wall at the dragstrip, or worse, if on the street you could end up in oncoming traffic or on a pole. That did happen at a Viper/Vette shoot-out about a year ago.

[BADVENOM]

Well I want to thank everyone for their input. One of the great things about the vca and individual viper community is that everyone is always very helpful with questions and info for us less knowlegable owners..Doug called me and said go with the medium half shafts by unitrax as they will be more than ample for my usage and give me some piece of mind. My understanding is it is better to not get in a situation where you break your stock ones and be put in a loss of control situation which takes precedant over everything else.