69mako

1994 LT-1 Vette, automatic. I’ve completed a fair amount of work on my Vette. New rear wheel bearings and I replaced the U-joints on my half shafts. After the reassembly of both half shafts, I noticed a slight amount of visible run out (wobble) on one half shaft. The other spins fine.

So I took off the offending shaft and spindle and brought them to the driveline shop where I had my new u joints fitted. They spun the axle and spindle up and found only a very, very slight variance in the half shaft and spindle, but nothing was out of tolerance. The new u joints are good. The drive line tech even mentioned that some new aluminum drive shafts have visible wobble.

My question is, for these half shafts, what is the acceptable amount of out of round tolerance for this Vette?

antfarmer2

Ujoints in right might have a needle laying down in the cup.

bjankuski

My question to you is, are you sure the u-joints were seated tightly in the yokes. If the u-joints were hung up at all, there will be run out on the half shaft. I do not have a number for an acceptable amount of run-out.

BOOT77

I messed up my orig alum driveshaft and was surprised how cheap I could pick up another on ebay that was in even better shape than the orig that I thought was clean. If bugs you shop for another.

69mako

Yes, that was the first thing I checked before I removed the half shaft. Then I checked that the U joint was fully seated in the strap.

hcbph

Which end is the wobble on?

I did mine last year and I made up a little tool to use on the hydraulic press to press out the old u-joints using the cross-shafts instead of pressing on the caps

Thing is, once I had the new ones in and the clip in place, I used the tool off the press, put it on the cross and used a piece of drillrod like used in concrete that was about 12" long and used it like a tamper and used it to push the caps against their respective clips. Loosened up the u-joint and turned out perfect.

If the caps aren't even in the yokes, that might be your issue.

Good luck

Kevova

Did the driveshaft shop spin it and measure runout with a dial indicator ? Run out should be under .020.

69mako

What a difference a week makes. The drive line shop spun up the half shaft with out the spindle attached and measured the run out. The first end was less then 7 thousands of and inch out of round. The other end was less then 6 thousands out. They also spun up the spindle and found it was less the 9 thousands out. They checked the new u joints and even though the were fine they measured and pressed in a brand new set, this was all done without them charging me a dime -Nice place to deal with!

I was very pleased with the work this shop did. I talked at length with the drive line tech, he suggested I flip the half shaft around and check my saddles as they seat onto the u joints when I attach the spindle. Over all he said the shaft was in great shape for being 22 years old and original and these shafts were never balanced at time of assembly.

Long story a bit shorter. I flipped the half shaft, installed the spindle and installed the whole assembly, fired up the blue beast and slipped it into drive.......TA-DA -no visible wobble!......

I am happy! Kudos to Mike and Norther VA Supply...a great solid shop to deal with

WVZR-1

I've had very many pleasant experiences with NOVA Supply. Never a drive-line experience and I don't know that they do drive-line at all locations. My experiences were in heavier applications and I have purchased yokes, joints and other drive-line related components BUT never "services".