Driveshaft Question??????

[BluThnder99]

What's the deal with the Aluminum Driveshafts do poeple get them for wieght reduction or are there other benefits. And whats the install like, is it easy or hard and much do they cost.

 

[Islander03GT]

I've never installed one, but the goal is to reduce the rotating mass. Reducing rotating mass will do much more for you than simply reducing weight (i.e. pulling your spare, backseats, etc.). Basically the less weight the engine has to spin, the easier it is to put the power to the ground.

 

[99greenstang]

Driveshafts are easy to install/remove. Most cars have bolted side on the rear end and a slip off area on the tranny output shaft, I haven't done a Mustang yet and I am too lazy to see how exactly these cars are set up. People get them for many reasons, one would be the less weight, but also, since it is a rotating component, it absorbs up less energy from the engine due to a lighter rotating mass, so you get more power to the ground. Good idea, yes, even better idea, carbon fiber. it's stronger and safer, but if you hit it sideways, its toast., or if you scratch it. Aluminum would be best for the street, less t worry bout. Cost, depends on the quality you want, as with everything else, I've seen them fro 150 (cheap wouldn't touch with a stick) to 300 bucks. You could probably get a good deal on one on ebay, but personally I would just buy new.

Just remember, be careful with the driveshaft and don't ding it at all. Mark the old one when removing it (just incase you want to reinstall it so you won't get a vibration), and if you get a vibration when you install the new one, your 180 deg out of phase, or just rotate the driveshaft 180 deg and the problem should go away.

 

[MT1083]

The aluminum is supposedly stronger and it saves weight. It's very simple to change as well.

 

[CottonBurnerz]

yup yup and yup...

better than stock.. I know a tech that has 1000+ hp 5.0 who said, "I've always use aluminum Drive Shaft" We were kind of talking about carbon fiber DS and stuff...

so anything better than stock is a must.

 

[COramprat]

I was surprised how much heavier the stock shaft is compared to the aluminum. Fairly easy to swap too.

 

[cold96snake]

I thought they were swapped more to reduce vibration and therefore allow removal of the dampener as well as the previously stated reasons.

 

[bdcardinal]

on the panther platform cars, once the rear gear goes over 3.55 you have to swap out to an aluminum driveshaft. the nice thing is that the newer police interceptors have a very good AL driveshaft from the factory. also keep in mind that these are a lot longer so there is more vibration involved.

 

[99greenstang]

I thought they were swapped more to reduce vibration and therefore allow removal of the dampener as well as the previously stated reasons.

All driveshafts will vibrate to a certain degree, any rotating mass will vibrate to a certain degree, even a "balanced" item will vibrate once it gets past a certain speed or rpm. All driveshafts, however, are balanced (unless a weight was removed by some means) and should produce no noticable vibration during normal operation, with aluminum being able to withstand the higher rpms before giving off a noticable vibration (this mainly has to do with the fact that aluminum can be made much thicker than its steel counterpart, making it harder to flex and cause a vibration due to the lightness of the material). The dampener cannot be removed, because it does not smooth out any vibrations from the driveshaft. The harmonic balancer, or vibration damper, is a device connected to the crankshaft to lessen the torsional vibration. When the cylinders fire, power gets transmitted through the crankshaft. The front of the crankshaft takes the brunt of this power, so it often moves before the rear of the crankshaft. This causes a twisting motion. Then, when the power is removed from the front, the halfway twisted shaft unwinds and snaps back in the opposite direction. Although this unwinding process is quite small, it causes "torsional vibration." To prevent this vibration, a harmonic balancer is attached to the front part of the crankshaft that's causing all the trouble. The balancer is made of two pieces connected by rubber plugs, spring loaded friction discs, or both. When the power from the cylinder hits the front of the crankshaft, it tries to twist the heavy part of the damper, but ends up twisting the rubber or discs connecting the two parts of the damper. The front of the crank can't speed up as much with the damper attached; the force is used to twist the rubber and speed up the damper wheel. This keeps the crankshaft operation calm.