Where to get CV joints and half shafts?

[Bill B]

A while back I purchased a partially completed RF-40 (Bill Tuttle's car). I have been chipping away at all of the stuff that remained to be completed and have made a bit of progress. The engine is in and all of the fuel, electrical, and cooling system connections are completed and operational. This car has a mostly stock Ford 302 and an Audi 016 transaxle.

I need to buy or make a set of drive axles for it now. I was wondering what dimension are required to properly define the axle length to someone that makes these? There is a front to back offset due to engine / transaxle and upright CV joint flange location. And, there is an up and down offset due to the suspension travel. Do I need to make a drawing of these offsets at full suspension compression and droop? Who are the typical suppliers of these and what can I expect a set of 4 CV joints, boots, grease, bolts, axles, and any other miscellaneous stuff required?

Thanks for any guidance, Bill

 

[flatchat(Chris)]

This could be a reliable start :- Buggy Suspension IRS

 

[Francis Lucas]

When I'm at that stage I'll be getting my CV joints and shafts from: The Driveshaft Shop | Home page

I think it was Frank that I talked to, I believe they supply the half-shafts and joints for Factory Five Cobras with the IRS option?

They have a "how to measure" page on their site but I found it much nicer just to talk to them in person to discuss travel, hp expectations, etc.

Francis

 

[Mark]

GKN will make them for you.

 

[Neal]

Taylor Race Engineering has everything you need and great customer service.
Hewland Gearbox | Jerico Transmissions | Quaife Transmission | Tilton Clutch | Racing Driveline

 

[Mike Simard]

This could be a reliable start :- Buggy Suspension IRS

I need to share something about these EMPI CVs. They are cheap Chinese crap and prone to coming apart because of poor workmanship as I found.

I had some in a Superformance Cobra and one exploded on track. I looked at the parts under a scope and could see that the ball race slots were sloppy and tight near the ends so that a ball forced them apart and so it went. The fault was not something that should have happened with any kind of basic manufacturing competence and an example of really poor quality.

I don't know about Driveshaft Shop as mentioned above, there's no OEM name assigned to the parts they sell that I could see on the ste and because of that I'd worry it's the same China stuff unless someone can ask them.

I second Taylor as a quality supplier.
CVs are among the types of parts that really should be from an OEM supplier such as GKN, Lobro etc.

 

[Jack]

The Driveshaft Shop is a quality (USA) provider to many major racing teams and is one of the sponsors for Team Superlite who just won the N.A.S.A. Super Unlimited class national championship this afternoon at Mid Ohio race course. All SL-C's are equipped with driveshafts from them as well as most of the INDY Cars currently competing. Great to work with too.