This is true but you have to weigh the costs also. A custom front shaft that is going to truely be as strong is prolly 4-500 dollars. A square shaft can be made for under 100.

 

If you can balance it, no noise at all lol... Good luck getting a shop to balance that though lol

 

Completely Understandable. But if you ride is going to be on the street in 4wd it needs to be a round shaft. otherwise i think square is fine.

 

i dont see the two square pieces ever fitting that tight. no sense in balancing

 

They make a little noise, But when filled with grease they are realatively quiet. shafts like this are mostly for trail trucks or trucks that see low street miles, so noise isnt really an issue

 

2.5x1/4wall flash out and 2"x1/4 wall flash in make a nice fitment

 

it didnt make much noise at all. I was in the truck and it was pretty quite

 

What would make a difference if it's on the street or not? The shaft should be sitting still, unless you run 4WD on the road. lol

My custom shaft was $475 or so. I gave them one off of an explorer, but they just chunked that and built one from scratch.

Brenton

 

True... Depends on his hub setup I should think... Right?

 

some of us live in areas where 4wd is needed on the street. (snow) lol

 

Square shafts do work. They have used them in the farm industry for a long time.

 

I don't think anyone was saying they don't work, just giving their input on them, that's all...

 

extreme 4x4 says that a square drive shaft if built correctly is way stronger than a round one.

 

we've all been over this

for one i only used 4wd once in the snow on the street just to see the difference so its not needed

and two, you shouldnt be haulin so much *** you notice the driveshaft shaking some if you NEED 4wd on the snow..

 

Here are the busted pieces of the front drive shaft up close. Notice how there is still a good amount of weld on the u-joint.

 

Looks like a bad weld to me. The two peices dont seem to have "joined" together like they should have. It appears that the weld didnt penetrate either peice very well.

 

Need to use a rod with nickel in it... And turn up the amperage to get sufficient penetration on both pieces... Don't wanna use MIG for something like that... Doesn't penetrate deep enough..

 

you know the parts on trucks are some times identified in diferent ways,by what people understand only by what they hear,i have learned alot by cutting down my d-44 and having the axle shafts resplined,the metals some people think are cast,are not,they are forged steel,the way i learned is by someone welding cast and showing me that cast and carbon material cool at different rates,witch causes the weld itself to crack down the middle,if you are welding cast "there are different types"i would suggest getting the mold welding rods part# wm.700.e.125.14a they work great for most a.c-d.c stick welders,that maybe what happened to you,like i said,get some one that has experience with the two types of metals look at it,and see what they say,that is just my 02.

 

If it's cast you have to pre heat the metal and post heat after welding or it will cool too fast and crack... some times crack under the weld... I don't think it's cast iron tho...

 

I'm going to consult with my Dad; he's been a welder by trade since he learned in high school. I'll keep ya'll updated..

 

maybe not cast,i would say by the way the weld looks he might have got it to hot by staying in the same spot to long,like not allowing it to cool properly before making another pass,or cooling it with water while it is still hot after the first pass i have seen it happen just that way,it makes the metal brittle not tempered,to properly temper a peace of steel you need to heat it first to 1400 degrees let it cool on it's own heat it agin then cool it with water and repeat once more,if you cool it with water after the first heating it will make the steel brittle.

 

that is my living at the time

 

Just order a driveshaft from these guys.

http://drivelinetech.com/home.html