I already know 4th gen shafts fit into third, so it's not a question of that. Noone has mentioned a physical appearance difference and most ask about the aluminum while this one is still steel, so here it goes.

picked up the 4th gen drive shaft yesterday (pictured to the right). Noticed a "bowl" like piece. 3rd gen drive shaft (pictured left) seems puny next to it so thats why i decided to swap, not to mention dealing with all that rust on the 3rd gen one would have cost more in time/tools than just to get the 4th gen shaft. Anyways, 4th gen was auto, and 3rd gen was manual, can i leave the "bowl" on there or do i have to swap upper yolks? It appears to be identical lengths otherwise and the cleaned off "usage area" seems identical and as though the bowl wouldn't interfere. Just wanted to confirm before i hit a bump, put the drive shaft at 180* with the engine/tranny and have them but heads (if the bowl does interfere) at high speeds. Thanks for input!

 

You can throw right in your car, no modification needed.

 

thats what i thought, thats great. Thank you very much!

 

before you go stabbing that thing in....clean the surface rust off the slip yoke

 

The "bowl" is a vibration dampener, IIRC. Just curious. Why chose steel when you could've gone with alum?

JamesC

 

I was just taking a picture for the site. I already cleaned off the rust. I knew about that already. I got the steel for $15. It will save me a lot of time compared to trying to clean the 3rd gen one, I don't know of any local allum ds, but if I did find one, I know it won't be $15.