Well, the Chevelle is D.O.A.....

[Postsedan]

I had a similar thing happen to me....I also broke the drive shaft in two pieces. My problem was a faulty u-joint.

It can all be repaired....luckily no one got hurt.

Dan

[Charley Lillard]

And please stop doing that up on jackstands. Bad things can happen like slam on the brakes and have inertia throw the car off the stands etc.

[allcamaro]

I was went back to the first video a few times, listen closely as the wheel speed slows down, something just does not sound right in the rear, I would look their first. My 2 cents...

Joel

[markjohnson]

I've seen where a bad (cracked) transmission tailshaft caused a similar disaster to this. Fella knew it was cracked but just figured he could live with the small drip leak and everything would be fine. Unfortunately, there's nothing left of Eric's to analyze but I do see the bushing from it slid down on the front yoke. One other thing that comes to mind is if that 12 bolt still has a crush sleeve in it or not. If the front pinion seal ever needed changed (or the pinion yoke was ever replaced/upgraded) and the proper torque/crush was not put back on that pinion nut, bad things can happen. Just throwing these out there as food for thought, Eric. We all know you're a pretty handy guy!

[Kurt S]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: VintageMusclecar</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Nope. Due to the big oil pan I had to raise the engine up on the mounts ... </div></div>
Why run that pan? Seems like there should be some other pan options that keep the driveline angles correct. Cheaper than the fancy driveshaft!
Then again, what do I know about Chevelle engine space - nothing... [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/smile.gif[/img]

[VintageMusclecar]

Joel;

I haven't pulled the cover yet, but the rear end turned fine w/o any tight spots, binding, etc. yesterday while I was removing the broken rear section of the driveshaft. I will pull the cover and verify things before putting the car back together.

Mark;

The trans was fresh and the yoke slid in with ease. There weren't any signs of damage there that I'm aware of.

The rear end was built with a solid pinion spacer. I'll only use a crush sleeve on a stock build.

Kurt;

The pan is a deep sump design which resolved a serious oil control issue, plus it was worth over 25 HP on the dyno over another &quot;race&quot; oil pan.

At this point I've narrowed my options down to the following:

1) Repair and put the Muncie based trans back in and figure out how to get a 4&quot; drive shaft under the car. This means some sort of trans tunnel surgery, but what the hell at this point, right?--the old shaft just started the process for me.

2) Find a suitable manual trans that has a longer tail section which by default reduces the length of the driveshaft which in turn reduces the critical speed issue and allows the use of a smaller diameter driveshaft.

3) For the time being, put a long tail shaft 400 Turbo in the car. The long shaft 400 is 9.5&quot; longer than the short shaft version which takes the driveshaft from 60&quot; down to 51.5&quot;. That would move the pinion yoke back far enough to make room for the use of a 3.5&quot; mild steel shaft which has a critical speed limit of 7418 rpm @ 52&quot; or a CM shaft which is good to just over 7500.

I need to get the busted box out and see what I have left to work with and go from there....but as much as I hate to say it, the 400 Turbo is looking like a pretty attractive solution at this point.

[crash]

1965-68 Pontiac full-size Muncie is 6&quot; longer than the standard Muncie(and I know where some are)...

I've seen this kind of explosion, check the insides of that Muncie real good... Crash

[VintageMusclecar]

I was looking at those last night on eBay--it appears the trans mount pad is moved back quite a ways on the Pontiac tail housings, not sure if I can move my crossmember back that far? Also not sure about the shifter location.

MAN this stuff sure seemed a lot easier 30 years ago...

[jannes_z-28]

This is bad :-(

Are you sure all the angles are OK? It's not like your Chevelle is extended to be a limo so a standard driveshaft should cope with your setup. I don't see any need for a 4&quot; expensive driveshaft.

I suspect some kind of binding in the joints causing this.

Don't give up, just fix it so you can enjoy it!!

Jan

[VintageMusclecar]

Driveline angles were within 1/2° of perfect--I had to raise the back of the trans quite a bit to achieve this, which is why there was no room for a larger diameter driveshaft.

The driveshaft and u-joints was built new for the car in ~2006/2007 and had less than 100 miles on it.