How to : balance your drive shaft

[BadToad454]

Its simple really . This is an old school way and the way they do the big class a motor homes.

Drill a hole in the drive shaft and pour in 1 quart of transmission fluid ,then weld up the hole . The fluid will smooth out any unbalance's in the shaft by gathering to the sides with the most unbalance. It acts like a harmonic balancer or damper for your drive shaft .

[97v8s10]

That really works!?

[BadToad454]

Yes it does . Ive dont it with several cars n trucks over the years .

[97v8s10]

Sweet!

[Telemarshallman]

Some of the most simple things are the most effective. Makes you wonder why they wouldn't do that from the factory.

[Thewhtnight]

Because then the vehicle wont fail, and the stealership and/or mechanic has lost potiential buisness. There was a time when cars were made decent and lasted - straight sixes... but no more.

[Thewhtnight]

Legit question now: are the drive shafts on our dimes hollow? For that matter are all hollow? And would a heavier or lighter oil be preferred?

[Answer069]

will this balance things out if you have a bearing going bad in a diff? or at least lessen the vibration?

[Thewhtnight]

Talked to a mechanic about this, just to get someone else's opinion. He had a good point: cold weather. Now, some in the south don't have to deal with this so much, but remember as the fluid gets colder, it gets thicker and gloopier. The drive shaft isn't heated in any way, not even work load or friction, so that liquid, when cold, would never warm up enough to thin out and actually balance.

The concept itself is pretty sound and decent in the redneck home fix way. I like the resourcefulness of it. But keep weather in mind.

[blazinlow89]

Talked to a mechanic about this, just to get someone else's opinion. He had a good point: cold weather. Now, some in the south don't have to deal with this so much, but remember as the fluid gets colder, it gets thicker and gloopier. The drive shaft isn't heated in any way, not even work load or friction, so that liquid, when cold, would never warm up enough to thin out and actually balance.

The concept itself is pretty sound and decent in the redneck home fix way. I like the resourcefulness of it. But keep weather in mind.

Actually the liquid sliding over the internalls of the drive shaft will create some heat. And even if the viscosity changes the properties of the liquid dont change to an insane degree, it will still be able to change tickness over certain areas just not as well as it would when its warm.

It will change a bit, but not to the point where it wont work as well. I have seen it done before and it works great.

[Rinkrat456]

The cold weather issue is exactly why BadToad said to use transmission fluid, because of it's low viscosity. As this quick fix probably does work to the same degree as liquid balancing tires, it's still left in the dark by a good static balance by a shop. Say if the driveshaft is angled. Now you have a pool of trans fluid at the pinion and the end is heavier than the yoke at either the transmission or transfer case. This alone will yield premature failure and a poor balance compared to having a competent shop tack on a small static weight that does not move and balances out the right portion of the driveshaft in question.

[ssbillet]

I had GM replace the drive line in my truck when it some how got bent? It just about shook the truck apart at highway speeds. I drove to 916 to move my sister home. That was fun.

So now I have a new "rusty" drive line that they pulled from a new s-10 at the time 2002. I still have the a small vibration in the rear and all of it was rebuilt.
I can calm it down with some sand bags but, who wants to ride like that.

I will try to shim the axle since it is an Xtreme and my experience in the past with the drivelines is that it needs to be aligned when the truck is lowered.

If anyone has done this with sucess or has any information on calming this vibration from the rear that would be great.

[Rinkrat456]

If tossing sandbags in the rear makes it go away, that means you need 2-3 degree shims put in to rotate the pinion up. I just did this on my truck with the similar vibration and now it's gone. I used a 4 degree, but my situation was different than yours.