1 or 2 piece driveshaft?

[junior]

I need some opinions here please. I have a 54 champ coupe that I got from my father. He has owned the car since 1958. In the early 60's he removed the 6 and put a Stude v-8 and 3spd OD. In the 70's he removed the Stude v-8 and put in a mild chev 283/350turbo automatic. All these years the car has been running the original 4.56 Dana 27 with no failures with the original 2pce drive shaft. I have decided not to push my luck with the strength and age of the Dana 27...after all, something is going to break the way I drive the car, plus the 4:56 gearing really gets tiresome without the overdrive, plus I want a narrower rear track so I can put wider wheels on without the tires rubbing the fenders. Right now the stock driveshaft has a horrible vibration if you accelerate hard from a standstill to about 15mph, then it goes away. After talking to my father, he thinks he never got the geometry right with the center bearing. He figures I should remove the 2 piece driveshaft and replace it with a one piece unit. After doing a search on this forum I get the feeling that I should stay with a 2pce unit if the car came with it, yet I wonder why studebaker changed to a 1 piece driveshaft in later years....seems to me that simpler is better. Needless to say, I have no problems straying from stock, and since I am installing a 3.42 : 1 gm 10bolt rearend I will have to do some sort of CASO driveshaft mods.

1. Should I go two piece driveshaft or 1 piece?

2. If I stick with the 2pce design, is the original slip joint/center bearing from the champion the same size and stength as a commander setup?

3. How much power can the original studebaker 2 piece driveshaft take?

I really don't know which way to go here, so your opinions are greatly valued!

54 Champ C5 Hamilton car. Stock...no way! A Stude hotrod since 1960. In my family since 1958.

[Nelsen Motorsports]

I say get a 1 piece drive shaft and a loop. I don't know how strong the original drive shaft is, but my car having a 383 Chrysler, we are not taking any chances.

Good Luck!


Alex Nelsen
1954 Champion Coupe
Lizella, GA

[Dick Steinkamp]

I ran the stock 2 piece in my '54 with a Chevy V8 4.27 locker rear end.

Here I am launching fairly hard and power shifting the T-10...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hchNhT2oq3w

No problems in 35,000 miles with the driveshaft.

If you do change to a one piece, you will probably have interference problems between the driveshaft and the tunnel. Not a show stopper, but some extra work.



Dick Steinkamp
Bellingham, WA

[N8N]

what Dick said, I am working through this with my '55 now. It already had the center crossmember cut out when I got it so I'm stuck with a one piece shaft for the time being. It worked OK with the B-W automatic, but with the shorter length of the T-10 4-speed, I started to have interference problems. I *think* I can tweak it to fit, but we will find out.

Yes, I have been meaning to do this for months now, but finding the time to do it is problematic. I've had one day off in the last two weeks, but I'm not complaining too much seeing as there's tons of people out there without jobs at all...

nate

--
55 Commander Starlight

http://members.cox.net/njnagel

[PackardV8]

FWIW, I've done many swaps and rod builds. I'd always recommend a completely rebuilt 2-piece. This means new U-joints, new center carrier bearing and hangers.

Going to a 1-piece shaft means it has to be larger in diameter to have the same strength and it has to move in a wider arc. Almost always, a 1-piece shaft in a 2-piece tunnel will hit on hard acceleration, with a full load or whoop-de-dos in the road.

When Stude went to 1-piece, they used a much longer tailshaft on the transmissions. Trying to use a short tailshaft transmisssion with a 1-piece shaft is guaranteed to hit.

Bottom line - much easier to make a 2-piece like new than to re-engineer for a 1-piece.

As for wider wheels; you'll want some nice ones anyway, so unless you find a narrow 10-bolt at a bargain, custom wheels are an easy way to solve the problem. Halibrand makes great wheels to your specs at a reasonable cost. There are Twin Traction 3.31 Dana 44s around which bolt in. Install the Fairborn flanged axles and you're good to go.

Your car, your money, your decision.

thnx, jack vines

PackardV8

[Dick Steinkamp]

quote:Originally posted by PackardV8


As for wider wheels; you'll want some nice ones anyway, so unless you find a narrow 10-bolt at a bargain, custom wheels are an easy way to solve the problem. Halibrand makes great wheels to your specs at a reasonable cost. There are Twin Traction 3.31 Dana 44s around which bolt in. Install the Fairborn flanged axles and you're good to go.

I'm not sure there is even such thing as a 10 bolt that is narrower than the Stude. The Stude was pretty narrow.

Jack is right about the wheels. There is plenty of room to the INSIDE..not much to the outside (in the rear). Wheels with a lot of backspacing and little frontspacing will enable you to mount bigger tires.

The front is another story.

Dick Steinkamp
Bellingham, WA

[PackardV8]

Since this is a custom, going up to 17" Mustang GT wheels will help clear the front upper grease fitting and give a range of choices for wider wheels.

thnx, jack vines

PackardV8

[junior]

Thank you for all of your input. I'm sure I will be consulting the forum as I actually get into the project especially when it comes to sorting out the geometry of the driveline. I'm still unclear if the champion slip joint is the same size/part #'s as the commander's. I can't find my chassis parts CD (it's probably sitting in one of my daughter's cars glove boxes) If they are the same size, I will probably stay with the 2 piece design. A few notes about the chosen rearend. After talking to guys who drag race chevy s10 trucks, they assure me that the s-series blazer rearend that I paid $45 for from the local wrecking yard, complete, drum to drum is plenty strong for a mild 283. These guys are running sb 383 chev engines with 10" slicks without a problem.(I hope they are right) The stock champion rearend measures 58 3/8" from drum mounting face to drum mounting face, while the blazer rearend measures 53 7/8". This gives me at least 2" more width per side to fool around with the 8" Cragar SS wheels I want to use. I am bulding the car in a mid 70's era street machine style to complement the 30 year old custom (but mint condition) interior and 20 year old (very good condition) dark metallic brown exterior paint. I hope all works out well.

Thanks again for your thoughts, ps Dick: although your ute is beyond awesome, I still favour your black chev powered hardtop. I stumbled across a 3/4 rear view photo of it on the salt flats while net surfing about 5 years ago. I hung a copy of that photo on my garage wall as inpiration of what I would do if I was ever fortunate enough to get my father's car. That is my hands-down, most favorite Stude I have ever seen....

54 Champ C5 Hamilton car. Stock...no way! A Stude hotrod since 1960. In my family since 1958.