PEETYZ

Long story short I recently had a vibration in the shifter and trouble shifting at high rpms. I was still on stock TQ tube so I wasnt surprised.

Tore it all down and found some issues:

Pilot bearing destroyed
Clutch disk and floater plate damaged (due to pilot bearing and or drive shaft failure)
Drive shaft bearings felt bad and couplers were stressed with marks showing they expanded and rubbed the inside of the tube. Drive shaft may even be slightly bent. I decided if i was going to upgrade this is the best opportunity.





Notice the rub marks are actually on the inner portion areas of the coupler meaning the couplers expanded and rubbed then shrunk back down from what I can tell. Are these GM OEM couplers or those BMW ones? Car has 80k miles but it appears someone had been in this TQ tube before so I'm not sure.



Pilot bearing was not in good shape...






Best course of action after talking to jeremy at RPM was to order the DSS Carbon shaft and new bearings from RPM( no coulers required ) Sure its more expensive for the shaft vs the 3 inch aluminum but by the time you factor couplers in it really isnt much if any. I knew the 3.5inch aluminum with no couplers was overkill and would have had more vibrations.

High speed balanced Art work




Other lifts were tied up so I went to work on the quick jack. Hydraulic cart, Floor jacks, a friend, and some elbow grease helped the process here. Using an old input shaft to line up the clutch is 100x better than the junk plastic alignment tool which still can move up and down little tip from RPM



Assembled next to old shaft:





Back on the road with new clutch parts, rebuilt TQ tube, Carbon shaft, pilot bearing, and 04 GM LS6 slave cylinder




Initial impressions are great! Virtually zero vibrations and motor seems to rev faster and want to stay spinning longer ( rpms drop slower with less rotating mass) Shifts like butter too. I will really get to test it during a 1/2 mile event next weekend. If anyone is on the rocks on which driveshaft to get I can vouch this is a great choice. Jeremy at RPM was super helpful through it all. Big thanks to him, Lee at DSS, and my local shop Proxses tuning.

CamminC5

How study is the quick jack for this kind of work?

It's nice when a plan comes together.

slow ride

Good deal, keep us posted on how you like it. The factory GM couplers should have "GM" molded in and have a part number I would guess. The aftermarket stuff for the most part is very soft and a poor replacement.

PEETYZ

Solid as a rock. It's a nice set up. My only issue was the fact that the hydraulic cart we were using was not quite low enough to take the rear completely out of the car since it was hitting the body once it was all the way to back but it really was not a big deal. If you had a lower cart or lower jack stands on the rear cradle you could slide it all the way out clearing body. I did have plenty of room to unbolt tq tube from motor, slide back, then un bolt tq tube from trans.


I'll double check but I did not see GM anywhere... Go figure

neutron82

that driveshaft looks sweet!... it's a shame when parts that look so good have to be hidden... I have heard they can shear and splinter on high hp cars, I'd be curious to see how it holds up over an extended period of time... I was considering upgrading to the 3.5" billet driveshaft when I have the drivetrain out to do the tr6060 swap, hmmm

95wht6spd

Does it feel more connected without the couplers? Harsher?

PEETYZ

Defintely feels more connected but its far from harsh. Feels like new stock honestly.

My combo of Hinson poly motor and trans mounts, DSS shaft, newer OEM GM master, 04 LS6 Slave cylinder, RXT clutch, MGW shifter with lower box and one washer ( anti venom mod) makes it perfect. Everything is more connected with little to no extra mechanical noises or vibrations. The car has never shifted and drove this well


Yea I thought about just mounting it to the wall. I'm sure it will hold up well. 3.25 inches thick, weighs 6.7lbs, and supports 1,000 or so HP

The 3.5 billet with no couplers will be a tad stronger but you will feel more vibrations. Are you planning on 1,000+?

neutron82

I have dss poly couplers now and it vibrates a tad at idle but drives pretty smooth once moving... wow that thing is crazy light though... I'm sure the billet one is at least twice that much... well my fuel system is probably capable of 1100-1200 and my belt setup should be able to handle that as well but after experiencing what a 1k+ hp car is like as far as breaking parts and maintenance goes I think I'm going to tap out on my motor where it sits right now... if I ever build a motor in the future I might add a few more pounds of boost, maybe shoot for 900ish and call it quits

Z_fox

I put an LGM carbon fiber DS in my ride and noticed a quicker throttle response. I think we used aluminum couplers but it's been close to ten years now and I forget but it definitely felt different right from the start. I did an Exedy twin disk at the same time and think I get some noise from that so I don't know if the DS quieted things up or not. I am not making the HP you are but I feel more confident with this setup than the stock setup.

PEETYZ

I noticed better response as well. Ben actually logged runs before and after at track and said boost dropped less between shifts. Less rotating weight helps

PEETYZ

Update on the drive shaft and new parts:

Car is still shifting better than ever ( about 700 miles on it)

I took the car to a half mile event this past weekend and had no high speed vibrations.

I actually ran 168mph in the half and think I had the fastest vette of the day saturday and tied the fastest for sunday which was also a supercharged C5Z Not bad for an old C5 with a little 347

modded c4, 2 other c5's ( mods unknown),C6 Grand sports ( 1 NA, 1 Blown),Stock C7 Z, modded and stock C6Z's, and 2 C6 ZR1s ( one lightly modded) were in attendance

Turbo-Geist

Glad to hear it's working for you. Mine has been flawless and I'm looking forward to using it again.

Did you get any video from the half mile?

PEETYZ

Got a few vids here was my best vid that is online so far

Fastbird

What kind of power is that driveshaft rated for? I ask because there's a huge aluminum driveshaft and solid couplers in my car now (was sold with stock torque tube and couplers) and it's the one mod the buyer (now previous owner as the car is mine again) said he'd not do again, and I see why. It vibrates like a **** if you're just cruising around and not thrashing on it. If that CF driveshaft is up to the task I'd consider dropping the money and parting down the current setup in the car.

PEETYZ

DSS and RPM told me 1,000 or so.

Aluminum 3inch with couplers 1,000
Carbon fiber 3.25inch no couplers 1,000
Aluminum 3.5inch no couplers 1,500

I have poly motor and trans mounts with the carbon shaft and have very minimal cabin vibrations. I noticed about zero difference with same setup on stock driveshaft. A solid aluminum shaft will vibrate more than the rest. You could replace the solid couplers and see or go with the DSS Carbon fiber and never worry about coupler failure again. Jeremy at RPM was great to work with for the driveshaft parts.

I see you are in Indiana? I'm not far away in Dayton Ohio. I think about 2 hours?

Fastbird

Couple hours give or take definitely.

Those flywheel or rear wheel (I am expecting flywheel ratings but never hurts to clarify) ratings? I believe my car has the 3.5 aluminum in it right now (documentation from interim owner is pretty much nonexistent) as he also did the C6Z/TR6060 swap at the same time and spared no expense, and knowign him, he went with "the big one."

This is more of a street car for me than a race car, so if I can hold the power without frying the CF driveshaft (it's at the 825-850 RWHP range for now) then I'm all for it.

neutron82

I'm going to assume those are flywheel ratings since the part on topic is responsible for transmitting power to the rear wheels... I spoke to someone at dss and they told me the 3.5" billet shaft with no couplers weighs 8-9lbs, does that seem right?... I would figure it had to weigh quite a bit more than the carbon shaft but only a 2lb difference is not much at all... does anyone have any idea what a stock driveshaft weighs with the couplers installed?... I'm going to have to decide on the 3" and reuse my dss poly couplers or go for the 3.5" without couplers, hmmm

PEETYZ

Fastbird- You should be just fine but you may want to call DSS and check.

Neutron-Not sure on the weight but the Carbon fiber is light 6.7 lbs. Id be interested in 3 inch aluminum with couplers vs carbon fiber with no couplers and 3.5 aluminum no couplers.


They warned me the 3.5 with no couplers would certainly vibrate quite a bit more than the rest but its the strongest.

for the 1,000hp options (3.25in Carbon vs 3in aluminum) cost is almost the same once you factor the couplers needed for the aluminum.

The 3.5 couplerless is actually the cheapest but it vibrates. If you are dead set on it buy fastbirds lol

Fastbird

Lol, you get a thanks for the plug!

Yes, I'll tear my car apart right now and get the aluminum out if someone wants it. Seriously.

neutron82

well I already have their couplers and they are fairly new so I'd only be out the price of the shaft, just need to decide which way to go... in reality the 3" would probably be fine for me, I never plan on putting stupid power through it and I don't drag race it much either... most of my hard driving is roll racing

how bad does it vibrate??... are you sure it's the 3.5" without couplers?