Aluminum Driveshaft

Wetblanket

New Member
Jun 6, 2016
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I have a 90 foxbody and i have a driveline vibration. I was wondering if i got the aluminum driveshaft would it be able to stand my hp. I dont have anything special now around 280 but i plan on doing engine stuff in a couple of months and i dont want to twist the driveshaft. Ive read a bunch on them some people saying how good they were and some saying how the twisted them up the first day. Lets just say im pushing 400 to the wheels will it be able to last or will it just twist??
 
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Let's try and narrow this down before you start throwing parts at it

first, check your existing driveshaft. Are the weights on it still? Are the U joints good? Is it twisted or loaded with rust. Does the vibration get worse with rpms or stay constant. Is it present in nuetral or only in gear. How about when you go straight vs. turning.

Then check your harmonic balancer. If it is stock and original, look for signs the rubber is leaking out that keeps the two pieces together. Very common and will cause vibrations and worse engine damage. With the engine running, does it wobble.

When driving, if a stick does it vibrate both in gears and nuetral? In all gears? with and/or without the clutch engaged?

Yes an aluminum driveshaft does help reduce drivetrain vibrations, and they are good well past 400 hp.
 
There are 2 flavors of aluminum driveshafts floating around: Ford Racing and AeroStar.
You might twist the AeroStar driveshaft , but you won't twist the Ford Racing driveshaft.


Aluminum driveshaft: (courtesy of shawn13) It needs to be from a 92-93-94 Aerostar AWD. It measures 45 ½” center of the front U-joint to center of the rear U-joint. You will need the U-joint, part #PUJ353 from NAPA. The Canadian NAPA pat number is 1-0134BF. It should bolt right up after the U-joint swap.

Note: This driveshaft is not an exact duplicate of the Ford Racing part. It is 3” in diameter while the Ford Racing part is 3.5” in diameter. There is no guarantee that the balance will be any better than the stock part.

Use a piece of string and wrap it around the driveshaft. Make a mark on the string where the ends overlap. Measure the length of the string:
On the 3" Aerostar driveshaft the string will be 9.42" or about 9 7/16" long.
On the Ford Racing 3.5" driveshaft the string will be 10.99" or about 11" long
 
Let's try and narrow this down before you start throwing parts at it

first, check your existing driveshaft. Are the weights on it still? Are the U joints good? Is it twisted or loaded with rust. Does the vibration get worse with rpms or stay constant. Is it present in nuetral or only in gear. How about when you go straight vs. turning.

Then check your harmonic balancer. If it is stock and original, look for signs the rubber is leaking out that keeps the two pieces together. Very common and will cause vibrations and worse engine damage. With the engine running, does it wobble.

When driving, if a stick does it vibrate both in gears and nuetral? In all gears? with and/or without the clutch engaged?

Yes an aluminum driveshaft does help reduce drivetrain vibrations, and they are good well past 400 hp.
Well i got my driveshaft checked they put all new u joints in it and balanced it that fixed my problem a little it stopped my gear shifter from rattling at 60 and from about 0-50 no vibrations but as soon as you hit 60 you can feel it on your butt and you can hear it its coming from the rear. No idea what this could be if it was a warped axle it would vibrate at every speed i thought.