Wish I'd learned about this sooner. My custom built drive shaft left the truck at wot around 100 mph on the freeway. It ripped through the stock straps, took out some of my exhaust system and put a crease in the heat shield that covers the gas tank. At least that's all I see so far. This sucks. I just got the truck rolling again and was on my way to the track to try it out. The girdles cost $20 at summit.

 

Glad you're ok. You're lucky if that's all the damage. Often the xfer case, tranny or diff case get broken as well. Not to mention the possibility of causing a wreck for you or those behind. By the way, if you run at a track using NHRA rules they are supposed to look for driveshaft loops in tech at cars faster than 14sec but I find they seldom do.

 

I've got a loop and I'm sure it helped minimize the damage.
The straps that bolt up to the rear yolk and hold the u joint in place are what caused the problem. What I learned is that the metal gets fatigued from hard launches and driving at wot. They get weak enough and they fail like mine did. I don't remember reading anything about this on here so thought I'd share the info.
Replacement straps cost $5 and the billet caps are $20. That's cheap insurance.

 

Where did you get them from?

 

I got a set of straps w/ my new drive shaft. Summit or Jegs have the girdles.

 

Cool, thanks.

 

So, at spot on the shaft do the shafts usualy break at?

 

I see what you're talking about now. Sorry for my density. I've never seen mention of u joint girdles either. Would the high torque cause the straps to stretch which would allow the shaft to wobble and let go or do they actually break off. Up to now, my torque limiter seems to be the breaking parts in my 4l60 tranny and street tires. Thanks for the heads up, I'll be ordering some billet straps.