I'm going to be doing my SAS this summer and on the front I'm going to make a square driveshaft. The reason is that I'm going to run a aussie locker in the front so I won't be going very fast in 4wd so a square will be fine. Anyways I will have a dana 44 in the front and it costs $160 for a D44 to toyota flange. Since I am making my own do you guys think it would be ok to use a toyota driveshaft flange for the transfer case side of my square driveshaft and use the d44 yoke on the axle side?

 

sounds fine to me...you can probobly have a drive shaft made with the d44 and toyota for around 250...? i think im going to do the square drive shaft for mine also, but im using a toyota axle....

 

The only reason to use the flange is so you can use an all Toy shaft rather than having a half breed.

No worries doing it as you say.

 

Idle minds want to know, why go with a square driveshaft? I would think that a round tube would be stronger and less likely to twist under heavy torque loads. Wouldn't a share shaft be more difficult to balance?

Just curious?

 

Jeff is trying to save some bucks and is committed to only using 4wd on the trail or at slow speeds. Getting a couple feet of receiver tube and burning it together is cheaper than a custom shaft.

I would avoid an auto locker and a square shaft running out here, but it is cheap, easy and replacable if it gets trashed.

 

Exactly. I am going to run this for now because it will cost me about $20 apposed to $240 for the shaft and $160 for the flange. Once I gain money after the sas if I don't like I will go to a round shaft and I am only out $20. As far as the front locker I have read a lot of good things about the aussie, again it is saving me $450. If I don't like it I should be able to sell it for almost what I paid for it. It's all going to be trial and error. Somebody has to be a Guinea pig.

 

A little more info:
Square

The square shaft is actually a lot stronger. The reason is that the shaft is made from 1/4" thick steel on both pieces. It also has no splines or anything other semi-mechanical parts to break. The other positive about it is that the entire shaft slips on itself giving more travel than any custom round shaft. The backfall is that since it is square and you fab it yourself it is much harder to balance and can be noisy at higher speeds. I won't be able to go over 40mph in 4wd.

 

OK, I see your points. It is actually a very interesting adaptation for that specific type of use.

 

I have a front square shaft and have forgotten to unlock the hubs and I haven’t noticed any bad vibes at up to 50mph. I also cut and welded my rear to be shorter and I have no bad vibes on it either. The rear is a stock 82 long beds that I cut 6.5" out of. Then I cut the 6.5" piece so I could make it smaller diameter and sleeved the inside of my shaft with it. The cut portion is way stronger than the rest of the shaft and it is also at the point where rocks would hit it so there is extra protection. The front square is like 25" long and has a total slip of like 20" and I only use 3-4" of that so there is plenty of overlap. I also welded two grease zerks to it so I could grease the slip and there is NO play in it when it is greased up. The steal is ¼” on each side and where it over laps it is ½” on all 4 sides not going to bend.