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On our trip to Seattle, we had a rearend vibration around 67mph. I took my car to have the driveshaft checked out and they found the problem. The rear U-joint was tight in one spot more so in another, they said it had a 'memory' in that area and would resist at certain speeds. We sent it to be balanced and that shop found the shaft was 'twisted' and the yokes did not line up either. They said it was junk and would definately vibrate. Someone in the car's life really put the torque to the driveline. Im Guessing when it had 4:11's in it, someone pushed it to hard and no wonder the original tranny is gone.
Thought Id share the story for others that might run into vibration issues in the future.
its only money right?

 

[HawaiianCamaro]

Jim, glad you found out what it was and esp glad it didnt fail during your Seattle Trip.

 

[stingr69]

The yokes were not in-line or in-time from the factory intensionaly. Here is the explanation I have in my files...

GM did it for a reason, and yes, it is to cancel out the vibration at the zero degree of power transfer.
Power traveling through an U-joint is like a sine wave, the positive portion pushes the driving yoke against the driven yoke, the negative portion pulls the driving yoke against the driven yoke. When two joints are lined up on the same plane, the two sine waves are superimposed over each other, in-phase, the term is called.

At the point of every 90 degrees, there is an equilibrium of pushing/pulling, thus, the U-joints are loose, no power is transferring. GM went and offset one joint by 15 degrees to keep the joints under a constant load, thus, no rattles, no shakes.

Remember the example above, we have taken one sine wave and moved it about the X-axis by 15 degrees, no equilibrium point now. Driveshaft is always under tension.

Lots of theory and maybe practical application for a manufacturer of commuter cars. Not much of an issue to us performance oriented drivers with our loud exhausts and reduced (higher amount) NVH expectations. We just want to go faster and look cool.

Aftermarket shafts are usualy built with both yokes "in-time" with each other.

I have the same vibration issue with my car but have not had time to do anything about it yet. I will probably need a new shaft.

-Mark.

 

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Good point there Mark,thats interesting and I can actually understand it too. Not bad for an old fart.
Got the car back this afternoon and WHAT a difference... smoothhhhhhhh ride now.
The guy said another few hundred miles and that rear unjoint probably would have gone KA Plewy on me.

Here are the before and afters of the shafts.