Drive line, Differential and Road Wheel Drives

Propeller shaft connects gearbox to the final drive gears of the vehicle through universal joint
and serves as drive shaft. A universal joint allows the drive to be transmitted through a variable
angle. The drive system is an arrangement for transmitting the driving thrust from the road
wheels to the vehicle body. The final drive is the transmission system between propeller shaft
and differential. The differential mechanism is built into the centre portion of the final drive. This
permits the wheels to rotate at different speeds without interfering with the propulsion of the
vehicle while taking a turn. In case of rear wheel drive, the rear axle is live, which in addition
to support the weight of the vehicle contains a gear and shaft mechanism to drive the road
wheels. The chapter deals all these subsystems for a rear wheel drive system. Also it presents
briefly front-wheel drive and four-wheel drive systems.
26.1.

Propeller Shaft and Drive Shaft

Propeller shaft, sometimes called a carden shaft, transmits power from the gearbox to the rear
axle. Normally the shaft has a tubular section and is made in one- or two-piece construction. The
two-piece arrangement is supported at the mid point by a rubber mounted bearing. Short drive
shafts are incorporated for the transmission of power from the final drive assembly to the road
wheels in both front and rear wheel drive layouts.
26.1.1.
Propeller Shafts

This shaft must be strong to resist the twisting action of the driving torque and it should be
resilient to absorb the torsional shocks. It must resist the natural tendency to sag under its own
weight because vibration occurs when the centre of gravity does not coincide with the axis of the
shaft.
A tubular-section propeller shaft is normally used because it has (i) low weight, (ii) provides
large resistance to misalignment, especially sag, (Hi) has good torsional strength, and (iv)
provides low resistance (low inertia) to changes in angular speed, which arise when a hookes
type coupling is used to drive the shaft. Since a propeller shaft often rotates at high speed,
specifically during the use of the overdrive gear, it must be manufactured, and repaired, meeting
design specifications and good balance limits.
Even after a perfect static alignment, shaft sags (i.e. forms a bow) at the centre due to its own
weight. When this sagging becomes excessive, rotation of the shaft causes the bow to increase
due to the centrifugal effect. This deformation, or whip of the shaft, sets up a vibration that
becomes severe as it approaches the whirling speed. The critical speed at which this condition
occurs depends on two vital dimensions i.e., the mean diameter of the tube and the length of the
shaft.
Since propeller shafts of road vehicles are sufficiently long and operate in general at high speed,

whirling may occur at certain critical speed. This produces bending stresses in the material that
are higher than the shearing stresses caused by transmitted torque. While the critical speed
increases with decrease in the mass of the shaft, the moment of inertia of the section increases.
The tendency for the propeller shaft to whirl should be reduced and to do so, it should be made
tubular and should be perfectly balanced.
Critical speed of the propeller shaft varies directly as the diameter of the tube and inversely as
the square of the length. Therefore, diameters are selected as large as possible and lengths as
short as possible to keep the critical speed frequency of the shaft above the driving speed range.
Propeller shafts over 1.5 m length between universal joints cause unbalance problems. Shaft
lengths are minimized by using long transmission extension housing and centre universal joint
with two-piece propeller shafts. When used, the centre universal joint is supported by a centre
support bearing which is insulated from the vehicle chassis. The propeller shaft tubing is usually
rolled from flat sheet, straightened within 0.25 mm, run-out and balanced within 0.00018 kg-m.
This keeps the centre mass very nearly on the longitudinal axis centre to minimize whirl. The
critical speed is given by,
Propeller shafts are so designed that the calculated critical speed is about 60 percent higher than
the engine speed at maximum power. Propeller shafts can also be designed for a given torque
rating, which is the torque required to stress them to the elastic limit.

Drive Shafts

These shafts are comparatively short in length and where space is a limitation, they are made
solid to provide clearance for movement of the suspension, and otherwise the lightweight tubular
section is often used. The short distance between the road wheel and the final drive housing,
combined with a large road wheel movement due to suspension deflection, causes the maximum
drive angle of the universal joints and large variation of length of the shaft. A CV joint at each
end of the drive shaft meets the angle requirement and a plunge CV joint accommodates the
length change. Rear-wheel drive vehicles having independent rear suspension need a drive shaft
to connect the road wheel to the fixed final drive assembly. On these vehicles normally a plungetype CV joint is incorporated at each end of the drive shaft.
26.1.3.
Propeller Shaft Vibration

Small cars and short vans and trucks incorporate a single propeller shaft with a slip-joint at the
front end without having any undesired vibration. Vehicles with longer wheelbase requires longer
propeller shaft, which has a tendency to sag and to whirl under certain operating conditions (Fig.
26.3). As a result resonant vibrations are set up in the body of the vehicle, so that the body
vibrates as the shaft whirls.
The main factors responsible for the resonant frequency of the propeller shaft causing the

vibration may be grouped as follows :

(i) Factors related to the propeller-shaft are (a) the diameter and length of the shaft,
(6) the balancing of the assembled shaft and joints, and (c) the bending resistance of the shaft.
Fig. 26.3. Simple one-piece propeller shaft using one slip-joint and two universal joints.
(ii) Factors related to the vehicle-body are
(a) the type and shape of body structures, reinforcement
box-sections, etc., (6) the location of components within the body structure,
and
(c) the qualities of drive-line vibration-clamping provided by engine and transmission mounts,
spring bushes panel insulation, etc.
A rotating shaft whirls if the centre of gravity of the mass of the shaft is eccentric due to which
centrifugal force tends to bow the shaft so that it orbits about the shafts longitudinal axis. The
eccentric deflection of the shaft increases with rise of the speed as a result the centrifugal force
also increases. The effect is therefore cumulative and progressive until the whirling becomes
critical causing violent vibration.
The factor responsible for the shifting of the centre of gravity of a horizontally supported circular
shaft between bearings to one side of the central axis are as follows.
(a) The sagging of the shaft between centers.
(b) Non-uniform wall thickness around the circumstances of a tubular seamless drawn propeller
shaft.
(c) The amount of weld metal may not be equivalent to the mass on the opposite side of a tubular
shaft, rolled up from flat sheet.
(d) The eccentricity of the shaft to the axis of rotation caused if the tubular shaft is forced on to
universal-joint stub-shaft recesses, which have been turned between loose centres.
(e) If the joint yokes and trunnion arms are assembled very slightly to one side, when universal
joints are fitted to the ends of the shaft, which are then supported on bearings.
(/) If the clearance between the male and female splines allows the shaft to be moved over to a
limited extent, when a slip-joint coupling is used at one end of the shaft.
The critical whirling speed of a shaft is inversely proportional to the square of the length of the
shaft. For example, if a shaft with a critical whirling speed of6000 rpm is doubled in length, the
critical whirling speed of the new shaft reduces to 1500 rpm, the quarter of this value. On the
other hand, by halving the length of the shaft, the critical speed increases to fourfold, i.e. 24000
rpm. Thus, halving the length puts the critical speed considerably above the maximum propeller
shaft speed for a vehicle.
Generally the rigidity of the propeller shaft is increased by extending either the rear end of the
gearbox main shaft and housing (Fig. 26.4A) or the final-drive pinion shaft and housing (Fig.
26.4B). The former approach is common for medium sized cars, and the later has been used with
some success on bigger cars having rear coil spring suspension with trailing arms and the tie rod
stabilizers. A slip-joint is normally installed at the gearbox end of the propeller shaft, which
allows the propeller shaft to automatically adjust its length in accordance with suspension
deflection changes.
Another method of solving the vibration problem is by increasing the diameter of the shaft, but
this increases its strength beyond its torque-carrying requirements. Also this increases its inertia,
which opposes the vehicles acceleration and deceleration. A solution adopted frequently is the
use of divided propeller shafts supported by intermediate or centre bearings. This approach has

also been employed in the past on large cars to lower the transmission (A) drive from the frontmounted gearbox to the rear axle. As a result the floorboard tunnel height is reduced, and the
disadvantages of a thicker shaft are avoided. When this arrangement is used on commercial
vehicles, large offsets between gearbox centre lines and the final-drive pinion , centre line can
be provided in two or three stages.
rig.
26.1.4.

Divided Propeller Shafts and their Support

Two-piece drive-lines, with two shafts and an intermediate support bearing (Fig, 26.5) are
generally employed on trucks having wheelbases from 3.4 to 4.8 m. The two-piece propeller
shaft uses three universal joints. The primary propeller shaft is of the fixed-joints-and-tubeassembly type, and the secondary propeller shaft incorporates a slip-joint at the support-bearing
end to take care of any extension due to suspension movement. Generally the primary shaft is in
line with the gearbox main-shaft axis, but the secondary shaft is slightly inclined to intersect the
pinion shaft of the rear-axle final-drive. However in case of high-chassis-mounted vehicles, both
shafts are fitted inclined to reduce the effective shaft inclination angle. When the primary shaft is
in line with the output shaft of the gearbox, rubber-type universal couplings are sometimes
utilized to damp out transmitted torsional vibration more effectively than conventional steel
joints.
For vehicles with wheelbases more than 4.8 m, a three-piece drive-line with two intermediate
support bearings may be more suitable (Fig. 26.6). Four universal-joints are employed and the
intermediate shaft lies parallel to the output shaft of the gearbox. Only the rear propeller shaft
again uses a slip-joint to accommodate change in shaft length.
26.1.5.

Propeller Shaft Intermediate Support Bearings

Intermediate bearing-and-mount assemblies are incorporated to position and support the divided
propeller shafts. These assemblies are either of (i) self-aligning bearing supports type of ()
flexible-mounted bearing supports type. Self-aligning intermediate-bearing supports are mostly
used on heavy-duty trucks. One type of this bearing support is a double-row ball-bearing with a
deep-grooved inner race and an internally semicircular outer race (Fig. 26.7A). This arrangement
compensates any shaft deflection through the inner race and balls, which tilt about the fixed
outer-race spherical seat.
Another method is the use of a single-row deep-grooved ball-bearing with a spherical profile on
the periphery of the outer races. The ball race is then encased in a steel support ring whose
internal profile matches the outside of the bearing (Fig. 26.7B). The relative movement of the
bearing and the ring can absorb any misalignment. Since both the above arrangements require
periodical lubrication, oil-seals are used to retain the grease and also to keep dirt out of the
bearing tracks.