OUCH - Tailshaft let go....

[Kiwivan]

Insurance is a must
What if someone else got caught up in it.
Every thing I own is insured.
We work too hard to lose it.
Kiwivan

[Valencia]

Insurance is a must
What if someone else got caught up in it.
Every thing I own is insured.
We work too hard to lose it.
Kiwivan

Totally agree insurance should be standard on any car driven on the road

[wbute]

Totally agree insurance should be standard on any car driven on the road

Third party property should. But I don't want compulsory comprehensive insurance on my mums 2006 Nissan Pulsar. It would cost more than the heap was worth.

[playwme]

If I lost my most valuable vehicle today it would cost me less to replace it than what I would have spent on premiums for full comprehensive on the cars I've owned in the last 20 years.

[Kiwivan]

But 3rd party is a must
Imagine hitting a Lamborghini you would be screwed for the rest of your life

Cheers Kiwivan

[SLR_dave]

A dropped front uni(which it isn't as you can still the uni on the shaft) will pole vault a car as it digs into the road. That's why you fit a tailshaft loop to anything that makes power. A rear dropped one will allow the shaft to flop around like mad until it falls out of the trans onto the road. I would say that's the most likely and that's where the trans oil would have come from. There is next to no chance it would have ignited on the exhaust I reckon. More likely a spark lighting the fuel leaking out of a ruptured fuel tank.
Fairly amazing if it twisted the shaft up though. It must have been made from exhaust pipe.

I totally agree, although I would change the word "flop" to "fling"! A tail shaft which becomes disconnected toward the diff end has to be presumed to still be turning under engine torque until it falls out of the gear box. So its not just freewheeling, its potentially still under power. The shower of sparks even if it just neatly dragged against the road are easily imaginable of course. I think WB brings up the best consideration though when asking what the tailshaft was made of.

[jason.ruff]

I have been around a lot of big horsepower drag cars over the years and i have never seen anything like that !!! Definitely the right question, what is it made out of. If it was a custom job then someone may be liable.

[Kiwivan]

I have been around a lot of big horsepower drag cars over the years and i have never seen anything like that !!! Definitely the right question, what is it made out of. If it was a custom job then someone may be liable.

Surely not home made?
Kiwivan

[Taily]

Surely not home made?
Kiwivan

Any number of possibilities. I wouldn't have thought it to be home made but it may have been knocking around someone's shed for years getting stuff leant against it etc and it may have copped enough little 'incidents' to put it slightly out of true or knocked the balance weight off it etc. it could have been anything though using my ipad I cannot quite make out of the rear uni or the uni boss may have let go?

I've seen some (mildly!) twisted driveshafts but never like that!

[wbute]

Do you reckon it might have been possible that the diff rolled around under power and the rear uni joint went past its point of articulation? That would have locked the shaft up maybe causing it to twist. If the motor was making serious power and it was going fast enough it might happen.