safe shaft angle

[ambidextrous]

ive made my frame into a rigid

save your comments on how a ruined another XS please

and the guy who did it, put it lower then i wanted

got it put back together last night, took it for a test ride, and the u-joint was making some noise

not a lot, but it was there, and when i had my suspension, there was obviously no noise

whats is a safe angle for the shaft?

you guys with lowered rears, could you post a pic of your swingarm with some weight on it so i can see the angle please?

i saw 'shops' rigid, and his swingarm is pretty much level

is that the lowest safe angle of that swingarm

thanks for your help

also, ive got a lot of 80' special parts laying around, send me a PM if you need something, i might have it

[Guy_b_g]

save your comments on how a ruined another XS please

NP...every bike this is done to makes mine a teeny bit more valuable. Thanks.

[ambidextrous]

glad i can help you out then

[Suckerpunch]

I thought about going ridged on mine but, id like to see a picture of yours if possible?

I can get you that picture. soon....

[petejw]

have you got a pic,
you should be able to get away
with a bit of an angle on the shaft,
were the uni joints in good condition?

[DiverRay]

As a rule, 10% is the MOST angle you want for a "solid". The ideal is less than 5% for a shaft that doesn't move up and down. Stock goes through a range of motion, but the range is what keeps it from going out too fast.
I would also like to see a picture of the bike. Hardtail isn't my thing, but I DO like the looks, and each of us has our OWN bike, made the way WE want it!

[crazy steve]

Personally, I'd be more concerned with the shaft/final drive joint. There's no u-joint there, but the spline has 'play' in it to allow the shaft to move a degree or two out of parallel under suspension compression/rebound. The centerline of the u-joint and swingarm pivots are not exactly the same, so that shaft does 'move'. On the stock bike, the swingarm pretty much sits level, but running that spline continually 'off-axis' can't be good for it...

I know from my hot-rodding driveshaft adventures that 5 degrees of angle on a u-joint is considered about the max for decent life, and 2-3 is better...

'78E original owner

[petejw]

the shaft moves up and down with the suspension travel,
i guess if you measured the shafts angle from level to full suspension
travel that should give you a rough idea.

and as crazystave said, id make sure the final drive and shaft are in alignment.

[81xsproject]

save your comments on how a ruined another XS please

Okay.

[Erik the Red]

1.5"?

When I was looking at my options for new shocks, I wanted to make sure I didn't go too much shorter or longer with them. Stock shock length (on the E, at least) is 12.5". I believe I read in a few places that changing more than 1.5" would introduce too much angle to the system. That seemed to be the consensus, at least.

I would think that there would be more stress at the U-joint, though. Since the drive shaft and final drive are bolted together, I wouldn't think that there would be much play at that connection. All the "bending down" would occur at the U-joint. That would essentially be the pivot point, and past that would just be rigid (due to the alignment being held steady by the bolts).

That's just my $0.02, though. If there's something that I've failed to think about, pipe up. -I'm always looking to learn more.

[crazy steve]

...Since the drive shaft and final drive are bolted together, I wouldn't think that there would be much play at that connection. All the "bending down" would occur at the U-joint. That would essentially be the pivot point, and past that would just be rigid (due to the alignment being held steady by the bolts)...

The driveshaft moves more than you think; the FD is bolted to the swingarm, but the shaft is just a splined connection at the FD. Here's a pic of my modified swingarm before I covered the hole...

[IMG][/IMG]

This is with the suspension 'at rest'; the shaft is parallel to the swingarm and the FD, so the shaft/splines are 'lined up' and I have an even gap around the driveshaft. I don't have a pic with the suspension compressed, but with the stock shock fully compressed, the gap at the bottom of the slot disappears, roughly .100". Shorter shocks and you'll get even more movement. Like I said, running that splined joint that far out of alignment continuously can't be good for it...

'78E original owner

[Erik the Red]

hmm...

I'll buy that. Either way, we're in agreement that it's not good to have too much deflection in the swingarm. -It took me reading through your post a couple times to be able to visualize what you were talking about. And after I thought about it, the teeth/splines on the driveshaft (final drive end) are only maybe a half inch deep/wide/whatever.

Based on that, I would believe it has the ability to wiggle a little bit. Running it while it's not straight into the FD would increase the pressure on a smaller area of the mating surfaces and increase wear. I could see it even starting to shave metal from both the final drive and the driveshaft.

ambidextrous: if you do decide to run it like this, I would think you'd want to pull the final drive off and check for unusual/excessive wear.

[ambidextrous]

thanks for the input, i appreciate it

im bringing it back to him tomorrow morning, and i think im gonna have him set it to just about level with the middle drive

not sure if that explains it properly, but i think it does a good enough job

then, ill ride it again, and it should hopefully be quiet

well, the shaft and u-joint should be quiet

the big itself is super loud right now, because my exhaust is not finished

heres a pic that i hope will post here



this is before ive painted a lot of parts, and cleaned a lot of stuff up on it

its the only pic i have of it on the ground and not the center stand since the work has been done

its just too damn low though, and needs to come up

the seat, if anyone was gonna ask, is from choppershox.com

[joceiphus]

Your bike looks good. I hope it turns out alright.

[ambidextrous]

got it back today

looks way better, and i think it might work out

ill know later, im gonna be putting it back together again and going for a test ride

but its set just about level now

he also took care of the side stand for me

cut it down a little bit, and added a foot

glad he took care of that too