"Overthinking things" is part of the process of making it right. 

From the engineering drawings of the early Birds, I come up with 6-7 degrees operating angle at the pinion which is angled upward, furthermore the output shaft is angled down which puts the two angles outside of the 1 degree of margin between them.

I'm settling in to the fact that 8 degrees at both joints is going to work.





.150 Stroked Y-Block:327.25 ci @ >1hp per ci
 

DryLakesRacer,

What kind of u-joints do you use?



.150 Stroked Y-Block:327.25 ci @ >1hp per ci
 

A bit more info from a guy that builds high angle drivelines. Jesse says that greater than 8° is the angle at which an added joint is a consideration. At 8° he suggests that a steel shaft is a crap shoot as far as vibration is concerned, he says that an aluminum shaft is his recommendation. His theory is that at high angles the rotating driveshaft will speed up and down 2 times per revolution. The heavier steel shaft pronounces the vibration noticeably more than the lighter aluminum.

Disclaimer: After watching the spectacular video of the Shaw suspension. I am feeling confident that my setup: Equal output and input angles and u-joint operating angles of 8° is going to handle the 400hp from my Y-Block. I will report.

Has anyone out there, running an early Bird, figure out a design to reduce the operating angles???



.150 Stroked Y-Block:327.25 ci @ >1hp per ci