Why were rear wheel drive vehicles mass produced back in the

>>16252768
It was easier to make a solid rear axle instead of dogbones/universal joints for front wheels that can also steer.

File: Renault-cv-joint-axle.jpg (206KB, 834x600px) Image search: [Google]

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>>16252768
Because it took 50 years to make a reliable constant velocity joint.

Far less complicated to drive fixed wheels compared to driving wheels that steer.

Also, it's way easier now to make an engine & transmission package that fits between the front wheels of a car while mounted horizontally.

>>16252768
nigger the cars were simple as fuck

>>16252788
>reliable
so they'll have one in 2040?

>>16252834
>so they'll have one in 2040?
stfu

when have you had one compleetlye fail on you? mine are torn to shit, clicking,and clacking,and i drove on them for 25k miles tillI bothered to replace em.

>>16252768
It was expensive, the Traction Avant was a higher end car

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>>16252788
Why not just use a regular u-joint? Too many weak spots or vibration or what?

>>16252929
U-joints aren't meant for the RPM's and angles that a CV joint has to endure. They are OK for RWD driveshafts because the angles they operate at are fairly low, and because they don't have to turn nearly as fast as the wheels do (since they run through a rear differential that is commonly somewhere between 3:1 and 6:1)

>>16252977
Yeah that's what it seemed like upon some research. Probably lots of vibrations at higher speeds and changing angles.

>>16252977
A driveshaft rotates faster than the wheels though.
It has to take a lost less torque.

>>16252991
Oh, yes. I was thinking backwards.

>>16252929
Regular Cardan joints were indeed used on independent suspension drive axles. Tucker did it on his one car, GM rubbed their dick all over it in the '60s and '70s on the Toronado and Corvair. I'm sure there were others.

The Cardan joint does just fine in RWD independent suspension applications, like the Corvair. As long as there are two Cardans on a shaft, and the angles on them are complimentary, they work as a constant-velocity joint.

When you get into steering axles, that's when things get fucky. Two non-complimentary angles makes them clunky and jumpy, because they're not a constant velocity joint any more. Enter the Rzeppa joint, what you posted.

It moves freely around 360 degrees, and not limited to the two planes like the Cardan.

>>16253319
Oh and then there was whatever the hell Volkswagen used on the Beetle's swing axle.

>>16252768
that type of joint wears out very quickly
>>16252788
don't for get the tripod joints

>>16252929
they are less efficient
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_joint