I am doing everything piece by piece with my car and right now Im driving on a bent drive shaft. Not bad, but until I have the dough to get my new aluminum one on, HD U Joints, and future 12 Bolt (Do it all at once), if Im not hard on it will it hurt the engine or transmission at all? (Feel the Power)
www.geocities.com/macgse/68CamaroRS.html (http://www.geocities.com/macgse/68CamaroRS.html)

Bad Bad Bad.... It's gonna eat up the bearings in your output shaft housing. Happened in mine,I didn't have a bent shaft, but it was too short, so It wobbled a little bit in the end of the tailshaft housing. Ate up the bearing, the aluminum housing and the yoke. Now I have all new parts and a drive shaft that is the proper length. BW- Why do you want to go aluminum? You don't save much weight, in order to gaet the proper strength, they use a thicker wall tube, in the end you don't save much in the way of rotating mass. When you compare the drive shaft contribution to all of the rotating mass in your drive train, your savings will be negligible, there is still the rear end, the axles, the hubs and the tires.... All of this adds up and makes the drive shaft savings insignificant. Do you really want to spend the extra dough on the Aluminum? Just food for thought.

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Shawn Peterson
1969 Z28, 406SB
http://www.geocities.com/corsican69

You can absolutely cause all kinds of damage with a bent driveshaft - not to mention the safety aspect if it stresses, breaks the u-joints and comes loose! Imagine pole vaulting down the road when the front of the shaft drops and digs in to the asphalt. I'd sure recommend repair/replacement or parking it until you can get it fixed.

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Scott
'69 400SB, Richmond 5-speed; '99 HD Road King Classic
www.geocities.com/sdenning1 (http://www.geocities.com/sdenning1)

Baby-
I gave a lot of thought to an aluminum shaft when I did the Tremec TKO and just could not justify the extra expense. It's another 150 smackers. A bumper standing 3" steel shaft with 1350 u-joints is $250. It makes sense to buy one when GM Performance Parts and Ford Motorsport offer Al shafts for late model F/Fox-bodies for low bucks (the Ford shaft is $175!!)Not that I want to talk you out of it, it's just my 2 cents worth.

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Click here to see see my car and hear 5-speeds. http://www.geocities.com/casanoc

Its not bad, in fact you cant see the bend unless you really study and look. There is no vibration either. I tell you guys one thing though, you really put a fear in my heart. Im going to get this done ahead of my sked. My engine purs like a kitten, (Aside from my solid lifters clanking right after start up). You could perform brain surgery on the manifold after it warms up. Are there any suttle sounds I should be listening for to make sure that no damage has been done to the crank? Oil was clean at last oil change.

best regards guys, and thanks.

CarlC, hmm your changing my whole plan if I was to change now I'd have to do all the research and everything. I know nothing about Fords...would I have to mod the shaft or anything? What did you use? Part# ect...

[This message has been edited by Baby68RS (edited 05-17-2000).]

baby,

Torker was the one that came up with this idea since he used to run in the 5.0 crowd but now has come to his senses. Just kidding John! The Ford Motorsport driveshaft is 45.5" center-to-center on the u-joint. It has 1330 (TH400) size ujoints. It is 3 1/2" in diameter. You can buy it from Summit. If you are going for a 12 bolt later on be aware that different trans and pinion yokes will change the driveline length. My 1350 pinion yoke is 1/2" longer than my old 1310 (TH350) yoke. I don't know how much it would cost to shorten a shaft but to re-tube you might as well buy a new one. The GMPP catalog shows two aluminum shafts for 93-97 Camaros, one for LT1 and one for LS1. I don't know the length or the ujoint size. Scooter gave me some solid advice on this subject several months ago that I took to heart. 1350 series ujoints, 1350 pinion and trans yokes, and a steel shaft and I can't go wrong no matter what I want to do with the car. You may also want to take a look a the Inland Empire Driveline website. They have some good information as well. If you are using a stock driveshaft now maybe you can pick up a used one cheap. I've got a TH350/powerslide shaft sitting in my garage waiting for a home.

Good luck.

Carl



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Click here to see see my car and hear 5-speeds. http://www.geocities.com/casanoc

Ricks has the 68 Drive shaft new, aluminum, Part # Ep-109A, for $ 365., with the U bolts at 20 each thats $ 400 bucks. with the 12 Bolt 1000 bucks., $ 300 bucks for gears, add some other little **** like perches. and leaf spring reconditioning and painting. Anyone want to donate to the MN Camaro Resto project let me know! And while Im bitchin, why the heck did they make the rectanglar side mirrors so they could touch the paint !

there....im done.

Baby,

Take it for what it's worth but that dirveshaft IMO in not worth the money. That driveshaft likely has the small 1310 ujoints and your limiting factor will be the strength of the ujoint. If you are going to spend that kind of money get one made to your length. Conversion ujoints are available to go from 1350 or 1330 shaft to 1310 yoke. Inland quoted me $350 for 3 1/2" aluminum with the HD spicer no-zerk ujoints installed. The Spicer ujoints are approx $25 each seperately, $40+ for conversion joints. The shaft you are looking at has no ujoints. For the same money you can get a 3" steel shaft with 1350 HD ujoints and at least the Spicer trans yoke. For a few bucks more you can get the 1350 Spicer pinion yoke and have a driveline that will be rock solid. If you are going to have a gear change then adding the yoke to it will not cost you any more in labor but it will let you sleep better. You may also want to consider having the tubes welded to the carrier.

Scooter really showed me the light on this issue.

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Click here to see see my car and hear 5-speeds. http://www.geocities.com/casanoc

It's normal for a Firstgen Camaro to have a twist in the alignment of the yokes. They came that way. Is that what you mean by bent?
I would not change anything if you don't have a ton of power AND traction. If you don't have both, you can't hurt it. The stock driveshaft is very strong. If you are not nearly pulling the front wheels off the ground I'd save my money and just put good u joints on the stock shaft.

Take it to a good driveline shop they can straighten it with heat I done alot of them in cars running as fast as high tens with no problems.It will at least get you by until you can get what you want.By the way I'm running the stock d/s behind a 427 with 500+ hp and no problems.
And yes some of the first gen Camaro's yokes are not in phase make sure the driveline shop knows about it as well not alot of people see this and would assume it's wrong I did the first time I saw one.

Im getting a richmond. somone talk me out of it. Im using the advice Carl gave me and in addition what everone else has. If I go richmond 2d design...I dont have to change my rear. I'll go 3:40's area, with a 3:27 1st, and a 2400 converter. I should be able to have a lot of fun. Comments? My rear sucks right now. I think it is 2:75 area...limited slip

Converter?

Craggar-
Are you running a big block / TH400 shaft with 1330 ujoints? Tires make a huge difference as well. I figured since I had to have a shaft made I would spend a few extra bucks and go a bit overkill so that I would be comfortable putting a slick on the car if I decided to do so. If I had the factory 1330 stuff I would have used it, but the $ difference between 1330 and 1350 total system upgrades is small.

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Click here to see see my car and hear 5-speeds. http://www.geocities.com/casanoc

CarlC is correct in everything he posted.

Baby, you're not far from where I am. I can fix you up on the driveshaft. E-mail me if interested. I can fix it at my shop. A straighten will cost $20 if it isn't bent too bad. A retube will run about $120, or we can possibly come up with a used shaft for you to get you by until you upgrade the rest of your driveline.

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70 & 1/2 RS
SB406 & M20 4spd
9" rear

70 Malibu 350/TH400

Gold member #103
Driveline Technician

http://www.geocities.com/carguy63/