Aluminum driveshaft

NIKwoaC · Aug 8, 2008

Anybody have any good things to say about these? Any noticeable performance increases? I'm itching to spend some money on the car, and I think the factory (steel) one on my car is causing some vibration at highway speed.

85_SS_302_Coupe · Aug 8, 2008

I got my car and it already had the 3.73 in it, and it vibrated at highway speeds (both with a C4 and the Tremec). I bought the aluminum shaft because i thought it was really cool and might save a few pounds, and it turned out that it eliminated the vibration.

My friend told me that the dogbone on the rear end that most people take off is actually matched to the gear and that different gear ratios have different weight dogbones. This is the first i've ever heard of this and i'm not sure where he heard it but it makes sense if 1) people change gears and the weight is wrong then it won't do any good, or 2) people take the dogbone off altogether. I think the aluminum shaft is just balanced better and absorbs the harmonics better than the steel shaft. Either way i still have my dogbone on just because i'm too lazy to take it off lol.

NIKwoaC · Aug 8, 2008

Well, my car has 3.73s, no dog bone, and the driveshaft has seen better days. So I'm pretty much hosed. But I've heard before that the Al driveshaft is supposed to stop the vibration. I was also kind of hoping someone would jump on and say "Yea, my ET dropped 0.1!"... Heh.

GTOreturns · Aug 8, 2008

There is NO HP increase with one. The primary reason for getting one is for vibration from installing new gears. When I got my 373's it vibrated bad at 60+ mph. With the alum DS it was cured.

85_SS_302_Coupe · Aug 8, 2008

It's sort of a physics trade off....being lighter means it's gonna create less parasitic drag, but being a larger diameter means it'll create more so as far as that goes it's probably no gain if any at all, and even if it did free up anything you'd never feel it. You might drop 5 pounds off your curb weight but the big gain is the better balance and vibration loss.

MAC'n89Blckstng · Aug 8, 2008

I put mine in and saw the biggest difference from it. Its so smooth on the highway. I love it, I highly recommend getting one.

faststang90 · Aug 8, 2008

my first mustang had a steel one and aluminum drive shafts was one of the first things done. it was a 86 coupe i had 3:73 ,crank pulley, we knock the cats out, 2 chamber flows it ran a 13.42 @104 mph that was the best i could get it to do. i did the aluminum drive shaft and it did a 13.40 @106.? almost 107 mph

NIKwoaC · Aug 8, 2008

faststang90 said:
my first mustang had a steel one and aluminum drive shafts was one of the first things done. it was a 86 coupe i had 3:73 ,crank pulley, we knock the cats out, 2 chamber flows it ran a 13.42 @104 mph that was the best i could get it to do. i did the aluminum drive shaft and it did a 13.40 @106.? almost 107 mph

See, thats exactly the kind of observation I wanted to hear. Anyone else? I like real numbers.

Aliate X · Aug 8, 2008

I as well had vibrations above 60mph after getting my 4.10s, aluminum D/S got rid of it completely. The stock d/s is not balanced to be spun at the speeds with 4.10s (higher gears make the d/s spin faster)...its also quite a bit stronger.

Shakerhood · Aug 9, 2008

The main reason as said above is to eliminate vibration, BTW those paint dots you see in the Pic get matched up with the mark on the companion flange and the torque on the new bolts with yellow loctite is 71-95 Ft Lbs

Rdrcr · Aug 9, 2008

NikwoaC,

I did not notice any performance gains after swaping for the aluminim shaft, but I have not been to the track since the swap.

I am selling the above shaft, which is a virtually new Ford Racing aluminum shaft and has been only used for a short time. If you are interested shoot me a PM.

The "ricer" and snob in me decided to purchase a custom carbon fiber driveshaft to replace my Ford Racing aluminum shaft.

Mike

EXTRPR50 · Aug 9, 2008

I do tell the ladies, "It's a lighter, stronger, high performance shaft.." Isn't that good enough reason to get one?

NIKwoaC · Aug 9, 2008

Rdrcr said:
NikwoaC,

I did not notice any performance gains after swaping for the aluminim shaft, but I have not been to the track since the swap.

I am selling the above shaft, which is a virtually new Ford Racing aluminum shaft and has been only used for a short time. If you are interested shoot me a PM.

The "ricer" and snob in me decided to purchase a custom carbon fiber driveshaft to replace my Ford Racing aluminum shaft.

Mike

Hmm...

EXTRPR50 said:
I do tell the ladies, "It's a lighter, stronger, high performance shaft.." Isn't that good enough reason to get one?

Haha, nice.

Anyone else with numbers?

Ike83 · Aug 9, 2008

I ran a 13.5 with the stock DS. Just as I suspected, after installing my aluminum driveshaft, I was able to run a 10.6........

NIKwoaC · Aug 9, 2008

Haha, thanks.

85_SS_302_Coupe · Aug 9, 2008

You're not holding out for someone to tell you they dropped 2 tenths in the 1/4 are you?

NIKwoaC · Aug 9, 2008

Haha, no, I'm just creating conversation at this point. But seriously, if small mods like pulleys, short throw shifters, or K&N panel filters can make measurable differences, somebody has GOT to have some dragstrip numbers on this. I'm just curious. Its the only bolt-on I've never seen a magazine or a website do an article on.

DucatiRdr · Aug 9, 2008

How about problems? The alu DS looks a hell of a lot bigger than the stocker. Does anyone have theirs knocking into their exhaust? Just curious - I have a brand spankety new alu DS waiting for me to find the time to install it. I would hate to go through the motions and have it banging into my Flows.

Aliate X · Aug 9, 2008

DucatiRdr said:
How about problems? The alu DS looks a hell of a lot bigger than the stocker. Does anyone have theirs knocking into their exhaust? Just curious - I have a brand spankety new alu DS waiting for me to find the time to install it. I would hate to go through the motions and have it banging into my Flows.

no its fine

85_SS_302_Coupe · Aug 9, 2008

It is a little tighter around the ebrake and mufflers, but i've never had a cat-back that had any issues with the shaft and my ebrake (although it doesn't work) doesn't rub.

Like i was saying before though, i think any advantage that it might give you in weight savings is going to be lost because of its larger diameter. I can't think of the term for it but spinning objects with a larger diameter consume more energy than smaller objects. It's really only 5lbs or so lighter too so the biggest reason to get one is the vibration thing and the fact that they're much stronger. I've heard that the shaft itself will handle 1000ft/lb if you have the universals that'll take it.

Aluminum driveshaft

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