oil pan 4

iTrader: (1)

A few years ago I picked up a stock aluminum drive shaft (around 2007) then some time around 2011 I took the drive shaft to Gregory's fleet supply in Virginia beach and had them replace the U-joints with spicer units and rebalance. Gregory's had to do it because they were the only place I could find near by that had the funky melted nylon injecting thing you need to install the U-joint in the yoke. Gregory's does premo work, they balanced my twin turbo diesel's rotating and reciprocating assemblies, been driving it since 2009.
Its been sealed up in a box ever since.
I am pulling the 700R4 transmission this weekend for rebuild. I have a 454 I am going to put in to replace the dreadfully boring 5L that is in there some time this summer.
I did some googling, found some LS1 tech dot com posts on the stock aluminum drive shaft but they were in conclusive and not really all that encouraging.
Does the stock aluminum drive shaft have any business being behind a 454?
If no, then I guess its for sale.

jmd

iTrader: (4)

My friend had a stock third gen aluminum shaft behind a pro shifted 4 speed and a 454 that ran 10s.

4th gen shafts (not sure on year but LS1 for sure) are thin-wall, damped with cardboard internally and weaker than third gen aluminum shafts.

Like anything, if it's fine and it's paid for, run it and keep an eye on it. If it junks out, then upgrade. No reason to future-diagnose something that's not bad yet. If you're on street tires and an automatic, you'll probably be fine for a long while.

As for why your shaft couldn't be reassembled with clips (internall for s44/3r) or external (13x0), I don't know.

Night rider327

iTrader: (13)

Yeah just a comment on the U joint.

You know you do not have to use plastic injection right? The aftermarket U joints comes with an inside half circle lock clip.

Heat up the shaft just enough for the plastic to worn it's way out, remove U joint, clean any remains of the plastic out, put new joint in and push/tap the new clip in.

oil pan 4

iTrader: (1)

This is the stock 3rd gen aluminum drive shaft from a car with the 1LE or WS6 performance package.
I do now vaguely recall searching out an authentic 3rd gen drive shaft as opposed to a lighter 4th gen drive shaft for this reason. (my bad, I had forgot the 1LE and 4th gen aluminum drive shafts were different when I posted this, its been a few years)

I bet that is why the LS1 tech dot com guys weren't too fond of their stock cardboard drive shaft.

So looks like I will drag it out and put it on there.

Thank you.