Hey, I was talking to a friend, and we kind of dissagreed on something. I was wondering if you guys could clear it up. I was just thinking about how much of a difference going to the alum drive shaft made in vibrations. My friend said that it may have been in the wrong way(flipped over). I am pretty sure I had had it in both ways and it still had the vibration. Well, anyway first question, does the driveshaft have to be in one way in the rear end or can it go either and be balanced right. He says that it needs to be a certain way. I dont dissagree here although I dont know one way or the other. My second question is if it does have to be in one way and not the other, why? Why wouldnt they just balance the drive shaft so that it is balanced on its own, and balance the rear end so it was balanced on its own? Is there something that pysically limits it them both from being balanced so it can go either way or did someone one day just decide that oh, we should balance them so that they will only balance out together one way?

In my line of thinking, I would not see why you couldnt balance them both seperatly and so that they could be put together either way and still be balanced. He said that he was taught that it has to go together one way and that if you balance them both to where they are balanced apart and put them together that they will not be balanced, but must be done so that neither will be balanced on their own, but when attached to the other it will balance if put together the right way.

I obviously would like an answer to which way is right, but mostly I want to know why. If someone has the reasoning for why it works whichever way that would be great, because without reasoning for which works we are still stuck with he said she said.

Ben

 

There's no "right" and "wrong" way to put them together.

They're supposed to be neutral-balance. However, if they're a little bit off, sometimes you can get their "unbalance" to cancel something else's slight "unbalance"; it's one of those things that's worth a try just to see if it helps.

 

doesn't matter how it goes in. a very long time ago i built a lot of drive shafts and it isn't that hard to do and not a single one was ever returned for vibration problems. now if you have a used DS and a vibration problem you might want to have it checked or the run out checked in a lathe.

 

Well, I did have vibrations with my stock one but I have an 1le alum drive shaft now.

Ben