HELP!!! TWISTED DRIVESHAFT!!!

nickstephenson8 · Jul 7, 2008

Hi im nick, im 19, this is my first post on this site and i have a bit of a problem. last night i tried pulling a hole shot in 91 5.0 stang, its automatic, the tranny is stock as is the driveshaft.. now i had the car in neutral and slammed it into drive atabout 4500 rpm . My car started shaking violently while making terrible noises, i thought it was gonig to blow up. I pulled over, shut it off and looked underneath it. My driveshaft was disconnected from my tranny, i got it towed to my house this morning. Just a bit ago, i tore out my driveshaft and it was twisted six times over, about a foot away from the rear end. Theres no visible damage to my rear end, or to my transmission, however the yoke had a few scraped teeth. The transmission shaft has a lttle bit of play, i dont know if thats normal. I started my car, put it into drive and the tranny shaft spun, so I dont think i blew up my tranny, but when i went to shift it back into park, it made an electrical type of clicking noise that didnt sound particularly good either.

I plan on replacing the driveshaft tomorrow any reccomendations?
car is 100% stock and a daily driver.

Also, tail housing seal? should i replace it? or lube it up with assembly lube, and keep it, it dosnt show any damage.

Im new at this, anything at all would be greatly appreciated, thanks a bunch

Nick

2000xp8 · Jul 7, 2008

Nick, not sure how you twist a driveshaft, but i am sure you don't do neutral drops with an automatic transmission.
You will be extremely lucky if the transmission is not damaged.

If the driveshaft is damamged as you suggest, just get another and put it in. My thoughts are that you just broke the u joint.

795.0pacecar · Jul 7, 2008

The clicking you heard was the parking paw. You put it in park before the tail shaft stopped spinning.

Post pics of the drive shaft. I've never heard of one twisting, only breaking.

rd · Jul 7, 2008

Not to be tacky, but I have not heard of neutral drops for 20 or more years. I remember a friend trying to rock a 64 Dodge out of a snow bank with the pushbutton shift in about 72. Yep it died shortly after that. It is absolutely uncalled for in any driving or racing situation, and a guaranteed way to break things. Your AOD for sure wont take much of this.

I guess I would just replace the driveshaft and see what still works.

Mustang5L5 · Jul 7, 2008

That's not a hole shot...that's a nuetral drop...and a quick way to blow your tranny.

It's possible the buzz you heard when you shift to park is the buzz the AOD commonly makes when it's low on fluid. If your D/S came out you more than likely lost some fluid as well.

My AOD leaks a bit from the cooler line, so every once in a while it will make that electrical-sounding buzz when i shift into Park and i know it's time to add fluid.

I could fix it, but i don't care about my AOD. Damn thing will not die from all the abuse I give it. I have a 5-spd conversion anyhow.

Maryland Stang · Jul 8, 2008

The last time I saw someone do that was many, many moons ago. It was a 1972 340 4 bbl Dodge Challenger and it ripped the yolk right off of the pinion.

neuf · Jul 8, 2008

I'd love to see a pic of this and I'm sure more than just the driveshaft is damaged.

iapexl8r · Jul 9, 2008

I sure miss being 19 years old!!! Just hit up the junk yard and get a replacment drive shaft slap it in and see what happens. If your really lucky you didnt destroy any thing else. the clicking noise is normal for trying to put the tranny into park from drive with out the drive shaft connected. next time turn the motor off before putting it in park with the drive shaft disconnected. chris

iapexl8r · Jul 9, 2008

to launch your stang with the stock tranny/torque converter. wile holding your left foot on the brake, depress the gas pedal just enough not to spin the tires. then as you release the brake pedal floor it(the gas pedal). you break *less* stuff this way
chris

ShortThrow50 · Jul 9, 2008

sounds like a bogus post o me.

86bluecobra · Jul 9, 2008

lol. If you want to launch at high rpm's get a high stall torque converer. Just replace the driveshaft and see how it runs.

ProZaK567 · Jul 9, 2008

Yeah.. i want to see this 6 times over twisted drive shaft... maybe its just a u joint.. lol

Darkwriter77 · Jul 9, 2008

Pics, or it didn't happen as claimed.

talladam · Jul 9, 2008

I've only done a few neutral drops in my time. One was in a 86 aerostar. Let it rev to the moon and proceeded to grab L gear and watched the trans case separate from the motor by about 5/8 of an inch.

The best neutral dropping was in my buddies 76 Gran Torino with a 351w, c6 and 9" That thing never blew up and had over 100 N drops on it. Floor it and wait til it stopped reving, drop it into L and boom....tire smoke from hell. It baffled us that it never broke anything, not even a u joint.

MAC'n89Blckstng · Jul 10, 2008

When I was younger I liked to put the transmission in park for my mom, and then one day I decided to do a park bomb and slammed our grand prix into park at about 5-10 mph, needless to say she wasn't too happy about that lol.

Darkwriter77 · Jul 10, 2008

Still waiting for pics.

To make something like a steel driveshaft twist usually takes gradual brute force (and absurd amounts of it), not a sudden jarring, which is more likely to just force the weak link in a driveshaft (usually the U-joints) to snap abruptly. I've seen a Ford Lightning snap a shaft in half at the WFC within the first 100' from sheer overpowering and traction (probably on the 1-2 shift), but it was a relatively clean break with maybe 1/2" a twist of rotation to it. (I've got a pic somewhere on my hard drive at home I could post, if anyone cares.) And I've seen one of my co-workers bring in an oil pump shaft from an old Ford Galaxy 500 that he'd twisted up like a piece of licorice somehow - I can't remember exactly, but I think he said it had to do with his oil pump starting to seize up and him trying to rev the engine in park when it was cold, or something dumb along those lines.

Not exactly trying to call on this one outright, as I think you might simply have your terminology mixed up, but I'm finding it very hard to believe that the driveshaft, itself, twisted around 6 times (let alone 2, or even 1 full rotation) just from doing a neutral drop on the street.

And in case nobody's mentioned it yet ... neutral drops = BAD. It's worse than dumping the clutch on a manual because an auto tranny isn't exactly designed to handle sudden jarring engagements at high RPM's and loads, whereas a manual tranny will usually smoke the clutch before breaking something internally (unless you're running a quality clutch and/or DR's or slicks on a prep'ed track surface) ... although most stock T-5's don't take well to that sort of abuse, anyhow...

strtrcr50 · Jul 10, 2008

ShortThrow50 said:
sounds like a bogus post o me.

+1. poop and swoop post

Beasty306GT · Jul 11, 2008

Dude your lucky u didnt blow ur trany up....nuetral drops are so stupid....if u wanna do stuff like that get yourself a manual....lets see some pics..otherwise this thread is crap without one

HELP!!! TWISTED DRIVESHAFT!!!

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