Are SV driveshafts standard Ford items?

[TopQ1967]

Hi,

 

Are SV driveshafts standard Ford items?

 

And Normal S3 driveshafts?

 

Regards,

 

Quirin

 

 

[mic]

They are made to fit the car, so standard Ford shafts are the wrong length.

[TopQ1967]

Thank you Mik,

 

I thought (hoped) SV's driveshafts whare standard ☹️

 

Cheers,

 

 

Quirin

 

[Rob Walker]

Caterham stopped using the Ford based driveshafts 3+ years ago. The latest driveshafts are made by GKN Driveline and are based on the Freelander driveshafts. Sadly not as strong as the old Ford based as the UJ`s run in a pressed steel casing , the old ford ran in a cast housing and the diameter of the driveshafts were bigger/stronger. The new driveshafts are lighter though. As Mick posted they are cut down in length to fit the Caterham installations. GKN will not supply direct I have tried.

 

Rob

 

 

 

Edited by - Rob Walker on 10 Feb 2007 11:29:58

[Caesar]

If they are custom made it is a pity that they didnt make the correct ones for the CSR. Both sides use a Right hand driveshaft (as shown on the stickers). The idea was to use equal length ones to avoid any torque steer. This means ofsetting the diff towards the offside by an inch or so, a rather ugly solution. It could have been solved by having the o/s shaft a little thicker to counteract the torque.

 

But, using two the same, means the big hub nut tightens up the same clockwise way. ie. not anti-clockwise against the rotation on one side, which is standard practice!

 

So much attention with the new model often let down by simple mistakes.

 

CoSwoRth it! in the end!!

[mic]

Most manufacturers use right hand thread on left hand drive shafts and have done for years.

[6speedmanual]

Unless 7s are particularly prone to breaking driveshafts (which I don't believe to be a particular problem) the lighter the shaft the better. Dead mass, unsprung mass and rotating mass issues all at play with a driveshaft!

 

The "old Ford one" referred to would be some kind of forged housing for the cv joint. A casting would be too brittle to take shock loadings experienced. The "pressed" metal cv pot is not necessarily better or worse, just a different design solution.

 

Regarding torque steer, this is caused by the geometry of the shaft. As the angle the cv joint is running at changes, the torque transmitted is slighly effected. Making a shaft thicker would not counter this issue as it would not improve the geometry. Going for equal length shafts usually makes the geometry work. The Caterham engineers have made a good decision here. Running a rh thread the "wrong" way is not unusual and there are many ways to lock the nut to stop it spinning off.

 

Offsetting the diff casing is a good idea too. A CWP is often inherently asymetrical and by offsetting it slightly the driveshaft geometry can be made correct.

 

Sourcing "production" parts adds reliability as they have a huge amount of design and durability testing invested.

 

Caterham Cars' engineers have applied attention to detail to bring us an accrate design which works properly with the reliability of tried and tested components.

 

There's no such thing as too much bhp per ton !

6SpeedManual

 

Edited by - 6speedmanual on 10 Feb 2007 15:49:25