The idea is a good in theory, but IMHO  there are two things one might want to take on to consideration. The  first weight vrs speed. The half shafts are much lighter because of their length than a typical drive line and they turn slower than the drive line because of the rear end ratio.  When a person chooses aluminum it is to reduce mass on a drive line that is spinning at high RPMs.  The higher the RPMs the more critical the mass is.  A steel half shaft will probably still weigh less than an aluminum drive shaft and with the RPMs being some where around 1/3 of that of the drive line I would be willing to bet that there would not be much improvement with aluminum half shafts.  To make matters worse the trade off for speed is torque.  there is on average at least 3 times more torque applied to the half shafts than a drive shaft and I would worry that that the aluminum would not be up to the task.  So the idea of reducing weight and rotating mass is a great one, but I am not sure that it would do much for the project and it would be difficult to do, not to mention expensive.

The Corvette C4 was, is factory aluminum.

Last edited by Daze (5/16/2011 8:33 pm)

That's what I said several posts ago. Aluminum drive shafts seem to be a larger diameter then steel tube shafts. My guess is 3".


Looks like 4".
http://www.dennysdriveshaft.com/c34_driveshafts_and_half_shafts.html

Last edited by Ralphy (5/16/2011 9:14 pm)