Replaced drive shaft safety hoop in my SPF

[Lowell W]

Dean,

Initially, I was rather impressed with the SPF driveshaft hoop but the more I looked at it the more concerned I became that it would only catch the rear end of the driveshaft. If the front U-joint breaks, the hoop will be better than nothing, but not much. The Buckshot tunnel does enclose the entire driveshaft but evidently needs to be removed to grease the U-joints (if you use the greasable ones) which would be a big PIA. Furthermore, neither option would contain the driveshaft very closely, giving it quite a bit of room to flop around once one end comes loose.

I'm in the process of fabricating a double hoop arrangement which will use a 1/4 x 2" angle iron bracket mounted to the back of the crossmember for the front attachment, with two 1/4 x 1-1/2" bars extending back to the mounting tabs for the original hoop. The hoops will also be 1/4 x 1-1/2", with a piece of 1/4 x 3" welded on the top 180° of each hoop to deflect shrapnel from the U-joints. Each hoop will also have another piece bolted in to form a circle around the driveshaft. Nothing fancy; just a lot of 1/4" steel around the ends of the driveshaft, with room to get in and service the U-joints. From your description of the hoop you bought from Summit, it sounds as though you could easily duplicate the brackets I made and mount another Summit hoop over the front end of your driveshaft, working from under your car with the tunnel in place.

Removing the tunnel the first time is a real b!tch but it sure makes working on that stuff convenient every time thereafter. When you do decide to do it, there's a thread here where it's covered pretty thoroughly. Whatever you do, don't glue it back in!

Lowell