Ok so i spent 267.00 bucks getting a new drive shaft made last week. all new u-joints center bearing new front shaft all balanced and ****. My elcamino is lowerd about as much as you can get. (2 turns cut out back and 1 3/4 front) I had to have the drive shaft rebuilt cause it snapped in half last friday! This was due to the fact that some one shortend it some time in its life and and did a ****ty job so it vibrated it apart. So no big deal right get the damn thing fixed and keep driving it. So tonight on my way home from driving my lil bro home the cars starts vibrating really bad again. So i pull over and check the rear shaft to see if the bearing had blown apart again. (nice easy access under the bed cover thru the tunnel that was cut out) bearing was fine so i try to limp it home the last 2 miles. the damn thing started shaking so bad i had to keep it below 25mph. all the noise was comming from the front shaft by this point and i could feel it hitting. My question is has any one else had this problem. im so freeking sick of dealing with this drive shaft. every thing is away from the shaft and it does not make contact with any part of the car. The pinion angle is like 0 degrees wich i know could be better but you would think that would just eat the rear u-joint a little faster. The damn new shaft was only on for like 100 miles! why does this keep eating drive shafts! Im to pissed off and its to cold to go out under it and see what the problem is this time but i know its a big one.
ive got a 61 wagon with the 2 piece. im in the process of getting it super low now, so im curious as to why yours is doing that. only thing i can think of is that maybe its out of balance. when i got the front shaft shortened the driveshaft guy said that if it vibrates that i should bring it back = front shaft, rear shaft and bearing. and that he could balance the whole set up together. other than that i'd think it was the bearing going out...but if its fine..???? keep us posted when you figure it out.. thanks good luck.
I used to go through the center carrier bearings all the time on mine, when they'd come apart I would pull the shaft on the side of the road and stuff a t-shirt in there, a little wire and some duct tape to hold things in place and limp home slowly. I broke a couple of shafts too. I eventually put a one piece shaft in it.
did you put one of those heavy duty bearings in or one of the regular ones?? maybe the bearing is ripping in the front and you cant see it..??
its a heavier duty beariing then what was in there. I dont think its possible to run a 1 peice with it lowerd i think i would have to cut the frame all to hell to make it clear things.
Try a two piece sliding rear shaft. Most of the really low x frames put too much stress on the rear as the suspension moves. Jay
I have that same GEM of engineerin' from GM on my 58 El Camino[im on 3rd one] ha! Let me ask you this- when installing it did you bolt it in to rear end and trans then tighten the two bolts in the bottom of crossmember at the center-WITH THE REAR WHEELS HANGING DOWN-or was the weight of car loaded at ride height and THEN TIGHTENED????? if the first scenario is the case- that ruined it,as it will then force the bearing forwards as the cars weight is applied. Here is what I did last time- I installed the new bearing and rubber in center of shaft. Then I took my mig welder and welded steel 'straps across in an X fashion frt and rear of that damned carrier cage and then installed it. -It has lasted a year so far that way..... they do **** though.
This may sound stupid, but are you indexing it correctly? On semi trucks, we have to index the driveshafts (make sure all the u-joints are aligned the same) otherwise it'll do what you're talking about. And after replacing the carrier bearing on a triple axle Pete on Friday, I feel your pain. I hope you figger it out. That's a cool car. Hell, if ya don't, I give ya ten bucks and a CASE of PBR for it. jay
yeah what he said about the indexing deal ...also ....check the driveline with it sitting at ride height...(on stands....to see if anything is funky...as it looks to be a little hard to look under......except for those ants....) a one piece would take a ton of cutting to the center .....but may be the thing to think about.......brandon
i had the same problem, tore up 2 carrier bearing supports in 3 days..... i put a slip-yoke driveshaft in it and haven't had a problem since. www.****sdriveshaft.com it's advertised at $190, but ask and he'll let you have it for $170 hope this helps....you can also do a search under my username i had started a similar subject post.
The guy that shortened the shaft on my 64 Impala said he knew the concept and that most folks don't. Maybe that's why it's working so well. I had to have the long shaft sortened for the extra length on the 700R4. I'd guess he took off about 3 inches. It's running very smooth. I only know he bragged about balancing it correctly and charged me too much. Maybe it was not too much after all...
re-check front shaft and u joints (maybe a weight came off). on 2 outta 3 X frames i have the rear shaft has a slip yoke, 7 years and no problems (even with the carrier bearing). also correct me if i'm wrong but don't they balance the complete shaft together (both pieces).
keep in mind, those hydraulics lowrider cars (GM X-frames) have the slip-yoke and no problems, even when hopping while driving, or driving around on three wheels. that really is the way to go (slip-yoke, i mean. not driving around on three wheels). on the cars i've had with hydros when i was younger and the ones i've worked on, i've not seen any related problems with that slip-yoke setup. my impala was slightly lower than your car when all the way down, and never any problems for me. give that setup some thought... oh, and don't be too discouraged, that's a good lookin' truck! it's worth the aggravation here. tred.
I had a carrier going bad on my White, was on the job 10 days straight and couldn't get to the parts place. Rubber was totally gone, swapped it out on a friday night. The next day there was a smaller vibration but still one there. Went on 2 weeks and the rubber in the new bearing started to fail, constantly looking for something loose. Finally found the slip joint had side play, probably spoiled it letting the carrier go so long. The male was the shaft, advised I would have to get one made, the yoke was available so I bought it ninety dollars and another 40 dollar carrier bearing. Lucky for me the new yoke was snug, virtually no side play and that part was cured. Also found the pinion yoke was loose, probably from the stress. Was advised not to tighten, replace. Absaloutely,, I made a sunday trip to Buffalo and found a new yoke and nut, probably swapped the seal too perfect end to a miserable ordeal.
Thanks fo the tips guys! I dont think its the rubber on the bearing this time last time it blew apart i could still drive it just couldnt take off fast. So im at a loss to what it will be when i get out there. My damn garage is taken up cause i thought i was done with this mess so i put the 50 in there yesterday and tore the motor out of it. So i have to go play in the wet driveway here soon. ill update you guys on what is broke a little later.
Well i just went out and jacked it up to take a look at it.. Turns out when i told them to add about 1" of length to it some how got turned into shortend one inch. seemed about the same when i had it up in the air during install but when it went back on the ground it must of been right on the edge. Its only in the trans about 1/2" to an 1" So i have to takre it out and go get it redone now im so pissed i could kick some ***
o its not money this time. im not paying them to fix there **** up. they better be fixing it for free.
Exactly, I bet the rear trans bushing is beat up. There is a bushing back there to hold the yoke centered, the output shaft kind of floats. The seal is at a minimum need to be replaced. The sliding driveshaft really is the best fix, it goes on the rear section, so it keeps the front section form flexing the center support bearing. My experience is the rubber is the weak link, not the bearing. My 60 El camino is a littel lower than yours and I do not have any issues besdoes the center bearing went out on me, been good for about 6 months and 5K miles so far. Well, the bearing support did come unwelded (the cheap littel spot welds broke from the foot piece), but a quick re-weld and it's still good.
well thats something that none of us thought of... and you know that when you take it back they're going to say that you told them to shorten it. that ****s.
Ok well im a dumb ***... The drive shaft must of been pulling out a little when i jacked the car up by the front bumper bracket yesterday cause i went out there tonight to pull the shaft out to get it fixed and the damn rubber is gone on the bearing yet again! What the hell am i doing wrong here guys? That damn bearing was 2 days old I want to get a billet poly one but there 120 bucks and i dont have that kind of cash right now. I heard of guys filling these in with some polyruithan (sp) caulk from a tube and that working fine for a long time. so here is my idea: Go to home depot get some of that caulk and weld a solid section surrounding the rubber but leaving some room for movement. Think it will work? Im so sick of pulling out this drive shaft
I had a 64 Caddy (this is an X frame car) they came stock with a 2 piece shaft with a slip yoke on the back half, CV type joints and a BIG *** center bearing. My car was really low (cut springs) and I beat the hell out of it and used to carry lots of people in it so my driveshaft got a beating I NEVER had any trouble with it. Get a slip yoke shaft or look in the junk yards for a Caddy shaft and have it altered for your car though that 2 piece shaft for 170.00 sounds pretty good.....
I say tom-A-toe, you say toe-MA-toe. Indexing? Is that the same as In-Phase? I'm ***uming so. You need to make sure your "U"s are in Phase when the car is at neutral ride height. I wouldn't think this would be a problem with a lowered car, until you said how much you cut the rear coils. With the car layed out, wheres the pinion aiming? It should be down quite a ways. I think this is your problem. It is throwing your rear "U" Out of Phase. I'm no rocket scientist and can't even begin to describe what this means except, the rear "U" is working twice as hard to travel the same distance as the front "U" putting serious strain on the whole shebang. 1. Make sure you get 'shafted correctly. Correct length, with correct slip yoke depth. Too much and when the suspension compresses you'll bottom out the splined end in the slip end, like a jack hammer from the inside. Too short and when the suspension unloads it slips out and you may pogo on that stick. 2. Install it just like Kenny(Choprods) said. 3. Before moving it an inch recheck that pinion. Cycle the rearend up and down and see how the nose of the pinion dives when you compress it. Without being there, I believe when you removed the 2 coils from the rear that moved the lower arms that much further up and since the rearend is bolted solid to this arm it strong arms the pinion nose down. Thus throwing your driveshaft out of phase for all the miles you put on it. Shafts can definately handle a fair amount of abuse and diving in and out of In-phase and out-of-phase, but when they spend all their time out-of-phase they heat up, they spit needles, they vibrate, and most ***uradly keep wiping your carrier bearing. Hope I helped, or just confused you and pointed at something that was totally not the problem. Good Luck!
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