how important is this shaft overall and under what common circumstances do these break,is it sled pulling,dragging or more of an everyday to much power kinda break?

 

I have all billet shafts in both of my trucks. Was told I probably didn't need the intermediates and that the stock ones actually are a little more friendly to twisting. I did it for peace of mind. Dusty told me I didn't "need" them on the truck I tow with.

 

I broke mine once...not pretty. It can (and in my case it did) wipe the rest of the tranny out. I would say...if your going to open it up...do them all.

 

It is the weak link if you do input/output, if you only do the input, the output is the weak link.

 

From what Ive gather (Im 6 speed guy), but unless you have monster HP, the stock is better b/c it has more give (twist) to it.

 

That would depend on who's billet shaft...

There was a short run of a bunch of billet shafts by someone out there that were treated wrong...became brittle and got a bunch of people with there panties in a bunch after they broke.

That is old news...

 

When building up my Goerends, Dave ended up recommending to me a new stock intermediate shaft as opposed to billet...

I have seen others here post that he has said something different too... so... who knows for certain?

 

Yeah Dave isn't recomending Billet Intermediate shafts since he was not having much luck with them holding up from the Supplier he was using. I ran with just a billet input and output for 2 years and broke the billet out put once drag racing with spray last fall. And I did end up breaking my Intermediate 2 weeks ago on a boosted launch but it was my fault since Im running a real loose converter right now and I accidently hit the lockup switch before it even shifted to 2nd gear, and it poped. But for most people I wouldn't recomend a billet intermediate. I now have all IE shafts in my trans.

Brett

 

Input is a must! Int I wouldnt bother unless your pushing some major ponies and dont go billet output with a stock Int.

I preffer my output shaft being my weakest link...

 

I have heard similar comments on leaving the output as the weak point as it can be changed without removing entire tranny..

Any Truth to that?

 

i went with flexplate,input and inter

 

I just had a Goerend trans installed and left the output stock along with Dave's reccomendation on installing a new stock intermediate instead of a billet. I broke the output in the first week, on my first trip to the track. Smarty on SW9. I really thought it would hold up a little bit better than it did, but I have a billet output installed now.
Had to remove transfer case and OD unit right at the track. It took me and a friend about 1 1/2-2 hours start to finish on both the removal and the install. Not to bad but not something I want to do again.

 

you could leave it stock... but its going to break over and over with high HP and boosted launches. now, put in a billet and you have a lesser chance of breaking it. and it can still be changed without removing the tranny. not to offend anyone, but i feel like that is the short of $$ excuse.

 

Well twist off a Int shaft or a input shaft and you will wish you left the output as the weak link and yes even billet shafts snap.

 

I wanted to go all billet shafts myself but unfortunately TCS was in the process of RD'n different metals because there previous intermediate shaft would not meet there standards. My tranny builder did offer to just drill out bigger lube holes on the stock OEM shaft for better lubing properties if the shaft was acceptable