So i think what your saying is I need to cut the cage in half and make a sort of slip joint so that one half can slide in and out of the other half?? I will probably do this then, sounds like a smart simple way to do it. thanks. I was out of ideas.
We were going to end up just making them so that they were set up to run with my suspension blocked, but I decided against that as I realized we would have to remove the loops and reinstall them at the pull as I dont haul it around with the suspension blocked, and some other local pulls require 1" of travel.
Just saw this, sorry I didn't respond sooner.
Yes. As your suspension cycles, the driveshaft gets longer/shorter. In order to keep an even distance from your driveshaft as the suspension cycles, you need a pivot point inline with each u-joint and to compensate for the driveshaft lengthening/shortening you need a section of slip (tube within a tube) with enough engagement to allow for movement and strong enough to keep both ends "inline".
The cage you built is a nice design, and should only take slight modification (cut the bar stock in-between two loops towards the center) and add a backbone to the topside using two diameters of square stock (with decent wall thickness and an OD of one closely matching the ID of the other (a "slight" loose fit is better to combat binding) with the slip located in the section you removed the bar stock from earlier. You must make sure to have enough engagement to ensure the two halves don't seperate and enough that it holds the two ends inline while also making sure not to bottom out on one of the loops. When welding the smaller tube to the shield/loop, you may want to weld in a spacer to keep things asthetically pleasing to the eye (keeping all loops and shields inline).
With the long shields that you used on the u-joint ends, the only thing to watch out for is binding on the axle housing/t-case as the suspension drops/lifts, but that is easily remedied with reliefs cut into the shield at those spots.
With the new square stock welded to the u-joint shield and driveshaft loop on each end, it should keep everything in-line. I don't have a cage on mine (all we are required to have is u-joint shields), but I'll see if I can find pictures of the design I'm talking about.
