That's interesting. I believe David Owen as I have several of his
books and I know that he does his homework. Possibly, the problem with
the resonances was caused by the length of the driveline in the
Alfetta series, I don't know. What I do know is that Ferrari used
torque tubes as does the current C6 Corvette to transfer power to the
rear-mounted transmissions, so it is possible.
George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0 'S'
On Feb 2, 2010, at 8:32 AM, Jerry in Arizona wrote:
George Graves wrote;
"If you're building a car from scratch that will have
a shortened drive
shaft, why use the Alfetta drive shaft and Guibos AT ALL?
I'd fabricate a
torque-tube (which Alfa SHOULD have done with the Alfetta
design in the
first place) and dispense with the troublesome guibos."
I
have seen many other references to this issue, so going to my
extensive
library of Alfa related items made up of one book, given to me by my
once
teenage son, I took out my copy of Alfissimo by David Owen. Owen
discusses
the myriad of problems brought about by the decision to move the
trans and
clutch to the rear in the Alfetta. The original and traditional
Alfa prop
shaft design used in the models no had severe destructive resonance
problems
cause by caused by differing rotastion massses and the prop shaft
always
turning at engine speed. The original prototypes could not manage
more thas
6000K without the likelihood of the overloaded crankshaft being
shaken to
pieces by the vibration. Through a slow and patient development
process: the
rear prop shaft was ultimately split into two seperate sections,
linked by 3
rubber couplings to damp out the vibrations. My point being the
decision was
made rationally and for sound engineering reasons.
Not to pick on George,
but hs remarks just kind of reminded me of this discussion in Owens
book.
Using the Alfetta DeDion in another application could, of course,
change the
vibrational dynamics of the vehicle (different masses, size, weight or
materials of the prop shafts) allowing a different configuration.
Jerry in
Phoenix
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