I have a 1992 Camaro RS 305 engine. was the drive shaft steel or aluminum? replaced u joints, I got the steel ones but now I am not sure if they were the right ones or not.. how do you tell? Its heavy as hell and surface rusty appearance, so I assumed steel. yoke pretty sure it isn't steel but then I'm not sure to tell (or if they were even made steel). I pressed the u joints in. the retainer clip that came with it doesn't fit because once pressed theres no room. the only part that didn't fit right (or I need to center it more) is when I bolt it to the yoke. the two free caps on the u joint thatattach to the yoke sits in fromt he edge quite a bit. but maybe that doesn't matter as long as it doesn't slide.

 

Put a magnet on it. If it sticks it's steel, if not then it's aluminum. As far as I know only the 1LE got an aluminum drive shaft.

 

Not necessarily. My '88 5.7 IROC shows RPO JG1, for the aluminum driveshaft...but my car was pretty fully loaded when built.

 

Its steel. Only special optioned cars got them.

 

They're usually 3R or 1310 sized. LOTS of different part numbers exist for interchangeable joints.
Google the dimensions on those 2. Measure what you have. Measure your yoke too. And the old joints too.

1310 have the outside clips against the caps.
3R have the clips inside, installed on a groove On the caps.

1330 joints are broader than 1310 but have the same diameter caps. Maybe that's what you ended up with.

 

GM used a bunch of aluminum shafts in 88 & 89 on average TPI cars to save weight. For whatever reason they dropped back to using them mostly on 1LE & B4C cars in the later years.

Pretty easy to tell the difference, aluminum doesn't rust, and the bare steel driveshafts do rust.