Drive shaft blues...

[dave-r]

Good Evening,

    Well my project continues to roll along...several years ago I had a build blog in the archives and after driving car for few years and gathering parts I recently, for several reasons I have decided to go from Automatic to Manual. As of right now I am simply (Ha!!) installing a 4 speed as I have not com across an affordable 5 speed and frankly I really just putz around back roads and around town in it anyway. So today I finished rebuilding my pedal box then headed under the car to prep for auto tranny removal. So while draining fluid I started installing new center bearing on driveshaft just to realize the U Joints are not up to snuff and have been replaced along the way with new u joints, and when they replaced them they tacked the end with small welds instead of staking like they are supposed to be....sooooo here is my question. I have a local shop that does balancing of driveshafts and my old automatics driveshaft has buttery smooth U joints so can I simply use the old rear section of my Auto's driveshaft and front of my 4 speed driveshaft and have it balanced?? Seems to be same length. Thanks. I did google and search this topic on FAQ and the WWW and still wanted to ask. 

 

Thanks,

Dave

 

 

[KFunk]

I can’t say for certain, but my local good ole boy style driveshaft shop didn’t have much of a problem with balancing the 02 driveshaft as long as I took them a guibo so they could make a jig somehow.  Thought that made it sound expensive, but only charged me 50 bucks.  On the other hand, they refused to touch my staked in u joints, and couldn’t measure worth a damn when it came to shortening it.  

So, it’s probably worth a shot, unless somebody local to you has a better driveshaft to sell you for cheap.

[AceAndrew]

I wouldn't do anything BUT staked u-joints.  Seen too many others fail prematurely due to looser tolerances.  

 

As for your question, yes, you can use the back half of the automatic and the front half of the 4-speed.... as long as the shop is balancing them together obviously.

[dave-r]

Thanks guys..yeah the welded instead of staked seems like trouble.. I am going to fully assemble the driveshaft and drop off for balancing and go with it. Then I guess I will have several front driveshaft options in case I get a 5 speed in the future or another FAQ'r needs a new front half. Thanks again..

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[TobyB]

Yes, seconded, the back half's the same.

 

Tack welding can work, if it's done well.

But evaluating it is not easy-

too much heat, the caps warp.

Too little, they don't stay in.

 

t