Time has come to get the tailshaft sorted on the car. I want to weld the diff but I first want to be sure that all existing vibrations/harshness in the driveline is gone so I know what to associate with a locked diff.
This means getting a single piece tailshaft made with a front unijoint.
What better way than to simply cut down a donor shaft straight from the same source as the engine, an Australian Ford Falcon
Here's the "biggest" hurdle for the new shaft, it has to clear some tight areas near the rear subframe and floor. For this reason, I am going to get approx 6" back from the rear unijoint retained in the smaller diameter.
Put the car up on ramps and stands with thanks to Fletcher Hazeldine for his assistance in this task
Here's my improvised tailshaft. Note the bent brackets on the centre bearing but complete lack of front unijoint. I think the front part of the shaft is actually slightly off straight also.
The falcon shaft next to it for comparison. Note how long the falcon shaft is despite being a single piece shaft. I should have no dramas with it shortened to fit the E21 especially as I'm running the same diff ratio and shouldn't often exceed 200km/h
The original E21 shaft (and what will be the tail end of the new shaft) is 2.5" or 60mm OD
The falcon shaft is 3" or 76mm.
Something along the lines of this is what I assume is needed to join the two together, in combination with a lathe to square off the ends of both sections, a dial gauge to ensure they are running true before and after welding, and clocking the uni joints to one another end-to-end on the shaft.
I'm not doing the work myself this time however as I don't have a lathe large enough to pass the tailshaft through for machining.
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