Tweet
Weather was nice today, so I put in the aluminum drive shaft. From jacking up the car to going for a test drive took about 50 minutes. I marked the old steel shaft incase I decided to put it back in. But after the test drive that isn't going to happen :).
It went in nice and easy. Glad I read the SI documents, they said to use chassis grease on the splines and bearing surface when sliding the shaft in. I was going to ATF fluid to lube it, until I read that. So I gave it a very light coating and it slipped right in no problem.
Took it for a test drive. First thing I noticed is that the rear gear noise is much less than with the steel shaft. I remember the guy who installed the gears saying how drive shafts and the torque arm tend to resonate gear noise up to the front of the car where you hear it better. I guess the aluminum shaft doesn't transmit the sound as well as steel.
After about 10 minutes of country road driving, I got on the interstate and brought it up to 70. Quiet and smooth. Up at 80 there is vibration in the steering wheel and dash, but I'm sure that is tires. Took it up to 90 where it smoothed out.
Cruised back home and noticed that the car is very smooth and quieter at under 60 mph.
I can't say if the car any faster or not, this sort of change just doesn't register on the butt gauge :D.
So... I really like the reduced noise, and smoother ride. That alone is worth the change. And if a couple of HP is picked up, thats a bonus.
Here you can see the difference between the shafts. The steel is narrower, 2.5" vs 3.0" for the aluminum. And the yokes are identical. The aluminum shaft is maybe a 1/4" longer overall, but that is just because the aluminum lobes are so much thicker than the steel lobe that it makes the shaft longer, but the center to center dimensions of the U joints are the same.
It went in nice and easy. Glad I read the SI documents, they said to use chassis grease on the splines and bearing surface when sliding the shaft in. I was going to ATF fluid to lube it, until I read that. So I gave it a very light coating and it slipped right in no problem.
Took it for a test drive. First thing I noticed is that the rear gear noise is much less than with the steel shaft. I remember the guy who installed the gears saying how drive shafts and the torque arm tend to resonate gear noise up to the front of the car where you hear it better. I guess the aluminum shaft doesn't transmit the sound as well as steel.
After about 10 minutes of country road driving, I got on the interstate and brought it up to 70. Quiet and smooth. Up at 80 there is vibration in the steering wheel and dash, but I'm sure that is tires. Took it up to 90 where it smoothed out.
Cruised back home and noticed that the car is very smooth and quieter at under 60 mph.
I can't say if the car any faster or not, this sort of change just doesn't register on the butt gauge :D.
So... I really like the reduced noise, and smoother ride. That alone is worth the change. And if a couple of HP is picked up, thats a bonus.
Here you can see the difference between the shafts. The steel is narrower, 2.5" vs 3.0" for the aluminum. And the yokes are identical. The aluminum shaft is maybe a 1/4" longer overall, but that is just because the aluminum lobes are so much thicker than the steel lobe that it makes the shaft longer, but the center to center dimensions of the U joints are the same.
Comment