Anything I should be looking for as far as condition, damage, etc?

Your best bet would be, looking for 1 from a 99+ F-body. They have a dampener on the front yoke that helps balance the rotational mass. As for damage you will need to look for any wear on the shaft indicated by a shinney spot around the shaft, or any noticeable dings on the shaft or yokes. If at all possible have the shaft balanced when you get it. Or see if the person you plan on getting it from will have it balanced before you purchase it. It should run $25-35 for it to be balanced at a shop.

I'm considering one out of an '88 TA. There are some gouges on the rear yoke which look like they came from a pry bar during removal. Any concerns there?

Depending on the price the person wants for the shaft, I would greatly consider the 99+ shaft. You can easily pick up a shaft for a 99+ for around $125-150 on EBAY or car-part.com. Why are you thinking of going to a aluminum shaft? I know thay save a little weight lessening the rotational mass, but if it has ANYTHING to do with a vibration in the drivetrain I would only suggest a LS1 driveshaft. If you have any second thoughts on a 99+ driveshaft let me tell you they are a bigger diameter shaft, they have a dampener on the front yoke to help limit vibrations, less miles on the shaft, and most importantly they are a BOLT-IN item (they will fit with NO MODIFICATIONS). Like i said Check car-part.com They have a lot of Pick-a Part locations on there. You could score a driveshaft for as low as 75 Plus you will get a better shaft with less hassels. -Russ

Many of the shafts I sold had a bit of scratching near the tail (perhaps from the e-brake cables), but nothing serious. I'd check to see that none of the balance weights were absent. You can clearly see where they're missing: a square spot surrounded by an adhesive or some such thing.

JamesC

Low miles is a huge plus if you are going to an Aluminum driveshaft.

Aluminum experiences fatigue, so the lower the miles, the better off you are. Another reason to go with the LS1 shafts.

That's something I hadn't given alot of consideration to.

Any way to determine what level of fatigue a DS might have?

Anyone know of any DS failures at near stock power levels?

Okay, after doing some reading on the subject of failing aluminum DS's....

If I get a used one, install new U-joints, have it balanced and verify that it CAN be balanced --- then I'm good with no issues, right?

If you can get it all done you should be good.

There would be no issues. However, I sold 60+ JG1 shafts and not one required balancing.

What do you guys think of this gouge on the yoke?

Wow, how'd you find all those?

Interesting story, I guess. A number of years ago, members talked about the rarity of the 1LE shaft--unknowing that the shaft wasn't relegated to 1LE's.

I reached the point where I wanted to upgrade to an alum shaft, so I advertised on TGO. Nothing, zero, nada. Bored one afternoon, I started searching the web on various websites, such as carpart.com. I purchased an alum shaft for $80 shipped within twenty minutes. Light bulb went off. I purchased them, checked them over, and shipped them out. I was selling at around $150 shipped, IIRC. Anyway, the JG1 shaft that members believed was so rare, simply wasn't--and isn't.

The shaft above is probably all right. That said, when I was buying/selling, I'd have been troubled enough to return it. But I'm anal about such things.

JamesC

Would you walk away from that gouged one pictured above?


EDIT: Missed your edit. Yeah, I'm pretty anal about such things as well....

That is where I have seen a few aluminum DS's fail. The gouge is like a head start.

Check this link, have purchased aluminum driveshaft for several projects, you get new joins and have it balanced, last one where for my Camaro, if not listed email him or drop a line.
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/supers...rmrsZ1QQ_fromZ

Thanks. I contacted him and he doesn't currently have any.

I just scored a free drive shaft off of what should have been a 4 1/2 gen SS camaro. Its a little rusted in color though which has me concerned, does aluminum ruset ? Are their markings on it that would indicate that it was an aluminium DS vs the stock ?

Alum doesn't rust (and some, of course, are OE). Check it with a magnet.

JamesC

Could be dirty....Aluminum can't rust, not even at the bottom of a lake, under water.

Around 11 pounds is the sure aluminum driveshaft. I just got one off ebay for my T-56, even though I had my steel one balanced first when searching for a vibration. Now i have no more vibration. The new aluminum one even had a small dent in it. All of the trans side yokes are steel, so you should see a definate color change there.
Later.

Just touch it with a magnet - if it doesn't stick, its not steel.

Bah.. its steel, well atleast I didn't pay for it. Did all of the LS1's come with aluminium ?

I got an ls1 driveshaft for 40 bucks off craigslist and it only had 20k miles on it so i just put it on and it was good to go. I switched from 2.73 gears to 3.42 so it feels very smooth now compared to the steel one.

Let me know if anyone sees a good deal on a driveshaft... can feel the vibrations at 70. To be clear.. all LS1's came with aluminim right?

I just got one on ebay. It's being shipped.

Let me rephrase that..

lemme know if you see any good deals.... for me!


How much did you pay for it. ?

That one looks good...must be a pre-98 driveshaft though since it doesn't have the balancer on it. The aluminum driveshaft I bought solved all of my vibration problems - I was banging my head against the wall for years until I quit listening to the machine shop that balanced my steel one....problem solved!!

$127 + shipping. There are afew more on ebay right now.

Yes, it's a JG1/1LE DS.

I wonder if we can tell the production date by the serial number shown there?

That looks like a thirdgen aluminum stocker driveshaft. I am telling you a 99+ ls1 driveshaft w? dampener is alot more desirable for the same price.

I've often wondered why there would be a need for a dampener if the shaft is correctly balanced. Any notions?

JamesC

My understanding of the purpose of the damper is to reduce noise.

RBob.

I've run a JG1 shaft (as well as the OE steel shaft) for several years and never experienced any noise that I'm aware of.

JamesC

The LS1 DS may (or may not) be somewhat superior, but I wanted a JG1/1LE DS. I'm just weird that way.