Need a Metal shop (metallurgist)sp?

[Bigg Slimm]

I need a metal shop that can do an analysis on my output shaft to check the metal hardness to let me know what caused it to break. Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

I talked to a shop and they said that the output shaft was to small to handle the power of the vehicle. I just need a shop to verify this for me.

 

Thanks.

[Guest nevarmore]

Metal hardness is only partially related to metal strength. What I know about it from my knife collecting is that a very hard metal is strong but brittle. It will break rather than flex a little and take some abuse. Hardness is a deceptive term in metallurgy.

 

Now, from what I know of transmissions, the strength of transmission components lies mostly in thier size and design. Bigger shaft > harder shaft. A harder metal might help a little, but it may just lead to chipping splines and breaking suddenly instead of slowly wearing down.

 

If you're breaking output shafts I'm willing to guess that you've already exceeded the limits of the rest of the transmission and that shaft just took one for the team. A sturdier shaft won't break, some other part of the transmission will.

 

What kind of power or modifications have you done to your Cobra? What transmission? Did it break just cruising around town? Did it break at the track after a hellacious launch?

 

Almost forgot, there are ways to test a metals hardness at home. I'd have to look it up and get back to you later. The rough layout is that you take a material of a known hardness and press it into the test item. The depth of the dent or the change in length of the test press can be roughly correlated to the hardness of the material.

[Bigg Slimm]

I'm bone stock, nothing altered even the air filter. The only thing that broke was the output shaft at its narrowest point, nothing else in the tranny or rear end broke. It was a clean break. I talked to a performance shop that services and sells parts for the tranny and they said the output shaft was to small for this vehicle. They don't even sell the exact replacement part, they only sell the upgrade conversion kit, so that might tell you something. The output shaft broke on the 1-2 shift.

[Bigg Slimm]

Tremec T-56 is the tranny in question.

[Guest nevarmore]

Egh. Is this a common problem with the T-56 or the Cobra?

 

If its bone stock, either you screwed up bad (doubtful) or its just a design weakness in the T-56. I'd upgrade.

 

Ask over at corral.net or wait a few hours for the 'stang guys here to offer more specific knowledge. I'm tapped.