I was at the junkyard yesterday, getting some little odds and ends out of an IROC interior. I'm sitting in the drivers seat, when I look over and I see a driveshaft just sitting there between the drivers and passenger seat. Apparently, someone pulled the tranny out, and threw the driveshaft inside the car. At first glance, it looked like it was steel, but it had a band on it about 2 inches wide that was shiny as hell (like aluminum). The rest of it was black. I scratch on the black part with a screwdriver, and I can see some very very light rust underneath. I try this on like four or five different spots, and there is very light rust. Now, aluminum isn't supposed to rust, so I try picking it up and it feels pretty heavy. So I'm thinking ... Ok, so I guess I was wrong, must be steel. But then I try removing some paint from the area around the shiny band, and its pretty dam shiny there too.

This confused the **** out of me!!!

One of the first things I did was check the RPO sheet on the car, but that was missing. Now that I'm typing this, I think I should have looked through the whole thing to see if it had any part numbers stamped on it.

Anyway, is there any way I can figure out for sure what its made of? Is the steel one a different diameter than aluminum?

 

The short answer....

Yes.

It is aluminum or steel.

Take a magnet with you if you want to know which one.

 

I wish I would have thought of using a magnet while I was there

Seems pretty dam obvious now...

I'll go back and try that tomorrow. Thanks for the quick reply!!

I've been looking for an aluminum driveshaft recently, as I am having vibration problems at highway speed. The vibration persists regardless of gear selection, it depends only on speed. I haven't taken the time to look into it too much because I barely ever need to drive on the highway, but if I had to throw a shot in the dark, I would say its the LT1 driveshaft I'm running on the car. There was a recall for vibration problems with the LT1, and the dealer has been issueing brand new aluminum driveshafts to replace them. Don't recall if they are using the 1LE or the LS1 type. I looked into getting it replaced at the dealer, but they won't let me just walk in with it, they won't replace it unless I drive in with an LT1, and they remove it from the car. Anyways... I'm babbling....