houtex

Welcome back, TMSers who like this sort of post... or at least tolerate them... um... Well, howdy anyway.

So this weekend... which should have been last weekend, but Reasons(tm)... was the weekend. Yesterday and today, I did in fact swap out Awesome's driveshaft.
TL;DR: Good move, shoulda done that earlier. Highly recommend. All S197 and S550s should do this immediately if not sooner, that is all.

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This'll be another one shot post on the subject. Enjoy...?

Awesome, after the Great Chain Renewal Saga, and the HVAC Blower of Brokeness Unbreakinating, had another little 'Need to get that done, because annoying and probably Not Good(R).' She had a moan/whine in all driving conditions, not removable by swerving (so not wheel bearings), nor accel/cruise/decel (not... um.. something? ), nor clutch in, engine RPM to idle, coasting at (mumbles unintelligibly) MPH. And she's clunking when engaging the clutch going forward and then rocking it in reverse, then back. And the vibrations at the higher speeds, which sorta match the volume of the moaning/whining.

I knew what it was, of course, but it'd just gotten that kind of bad. That STUPID carrier/center bearing of situation of the driveshaft is done. Oh, I'd already known because previously inspected and saw the slop in it, and I'd had plans... so of course the timing chains happened instead and nearly totaled her out. Me to the rescue on that, but that's a whole other thread. That had to get done, and other things too, but finally, I was ready to replace that carrier bearing, as the CVs and UJoint are all good, near as can be told. I've seen video where this is a thing to do, and after doing the chains, well, heck, that wouldn't be hard at all, right?

...aaand you can't get those center carrier bearing assemblies. Ford will only sell the *entire* driveshaft. And it's NOT cheap.

I do research on the subject and yes... as I'm sure you all already know, but if you don't... Not only does Ford not sell the carrier bearing alone, pretty much the only thing you can do is buy an ebay special and hope, get one out of a junkyard and hope... or buy a one piece. Of which, sure, there's several. And they all ain't cheap.

So I

Then I get over it. It's Awesome. She needs my help, so... yes, she's gonna get a new driveshaft. No problem, girl, we get it done.

Further research indicates that while there's this or that driveshaft, it seems the cheapest, and yet really really good one piece is the Ford Performance 3.5" aluminum driveshaft. Example link:
https://www.americanmuscle.com/frpp-...ft-0510gt.html
And it's for a manual. It's interesting that the Driveshaft Shop's more expensive, with an adapter, driveshaft for the same model year is manual or automagic, whereas the FPP one is manual only, but hey, Awesome's a stick car, so I'm good. Plus the FPP doesn't have adapters, it's literal bolt right on the flanges on either end, 'exact' stock replacement.

(Fun fact: It's not a Ford Performance driveshaft. It's a Dana Spicer, with Dana Spicer U-Joints in them. 'Standard' 1350 ones, so readily available. Ford just puts their name on the box. For what that's worth, but I'm definitely not complaning! Dana's good stuff, I understand, so heck yeah. Yeah, yeah, 'off road use' ,whatever, I need a driveshaft, sending it.)

Now... long story short, honestly: It went in. The old one came out, and oh my yes, that center was a mess. New one went in. You can find a video on how a FPP one piece goes in/on/all that. Highlights for my adventure:

1 - Old one came out no big deal.
2 - New one was a bear to install because exhaust in the way
3 - New one didn't want to collapse and stay that way, so I had to fight it to get it on the rear axle flange.
4 - New one has to use two 1/2"/13mm bolts (supplied) in two of the six holes that are 'behind' the 'ears' of the U-Joint, so that's fun considering 3 above.
5 - New one has to use 4 hex cap head bolts (supplied) of 8mm, which meant a trip to a store for a set of round head hex sockets
6 - Crows foot wrenches are *stupid* expensive if you gotta go to the store... not that the hex sockets above aren't... but double those.
7 - Which means putting 41 Ft-lb of torque on these 6 overall bolts is impossible, but it turns out I can approximate enough, I do believe.
8 - A 12 pt 12mm socket with this new driveshaft is very difficult to get torqued. Made moreso because...
9 - I didn't lift the car high enough to use my 250 Ft-lb 1/2" torque wrench, it's too long. Had to use the 3/8, and a wobble extension, but I managed. and got 76 Ft-lb on them stupid things...
10 - In gear is fine for the rear bolts. Not for the front at 76 Ft-lb. Had to go back and forth from under the car to the inside for parking brake to get that done. Ugh.

I think that's it... It got done, dangit. Yay me and all that.

Oh, one thing... if you do this, be aware that you may have at the front flange some U-Joint grease, dirt, and water mix when you take that one off. It's fine, the mount up there is open to the world, so that's gonna happen.

Another thing... have anaerobic gasket maker available. You'll want that for the rear flange, maybe. Seepage from the axle nut/pinion stud is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it's a little, but to keep the drippage from happening from that issue, the anaerobic gasket maker can be used on the 'corner' of the axle flange before inserting the driveshaft and bolting it up. I know because I'd already done that last time. And it seemed that Ford used some on that flange when they assembled it, but it was blue, and it wasn't thread locker, I can tell you that, first time I took that driveshaft off (clutch job.) Just a head's up.

And got the garage cleaned up from all that stuff, put her back on the wheels and took off. MUCH better, no more clonking shifting gears, or the forward/reverse/forward thing... sounds are gone at all speeds that were related (she's racecar suspension, so she's gonna have noises, y'know)... as were the vibrations. Sweet.

And the kicker? She was for some reason, had been for quite a while, having some sort of oscillation on these particular turns near my house. Other places too, but these two sweepers would bring out the worst of it. It was as if the rear was bouncing around counter to the axle placement, like the axle/body connection was flexing or... I dunno. I never could figure it out, and figured it was just Because Racecar (suspension). But after this driveshaft replacement? Gone. Amazing. I figure now that the bad carrier was causing a slight bind in the turns, maybe the heavy axle and it spinning adding 'weight' was having it sling sideways? And that would bounce around in that carrier and cause the axle to be slightly upset...? I dunno... but it's gone, and wow. Wouldn't have figured that'd be doing that, but it was. Very happy about that result.

By the way, yes, I rechecked *all* the suspension bits. Everything is nice and tight. There's no play that ain't supposed to be there what ever. Bolts are good to go. It's not a suspension problem. I mean, sure, there's still maybe a little more 'flex' than I'd like because I like having a car I can dang near literally 'point' wherever I want it to be on the road... but it's so much better now. I'll just be attacking the final bits of flexibility with a strut tower brake, shock tower brace and a panhard bar brace. And whenever I take the tank out, I'll get that BMR upper axle mount done, but I just don't wanna that bad. It's over there, mocking me. One day I'll get to it...

But yeppers. I shoulda done that a LONG time ago. Oh, and she shifts nicer now. Smoother. And she has just a teensy bit more get up and go, which I understood might be a thing because dang near half the weight.

Funtimes. Me likey!

Alrighty then. Thanks for readin!

/I need to go to a road course track one day, just to see how she really does with all this suspension setup... I probably would siphon at it, but it'll be fun, right? Right!

Bert

Sounds like it went pretty well overall. I had similar experience with the bolts and torquing . . . ended up asking my local driveline shop to retorque them for me, when they had the car for pinion angle adjustment, which leads me to my main comment:

You might experience some vibration in the driveshaft, when can be speed and load dependent. This is because the one-piece driveshaft is more sensitive to pinion angle, and because the driveline angles in these cars are not ideal, and that's part of the reason for the center joint in the factory driveshaft. If you do get vibrations, you probably need an adjustable upper control arm, and to have the pinion angle adjusted/set-up.

And yes, road track is a blast, everyone should do it at least once, and you don't really need to do anything additional for the car, as long as you are not planning to really push the envelope . . . but be forewarned, it is like Lay's potato chips, nobody can have just one!

houtex

Well, thankfully on the first run, I don't seem to be experiencing any vibratory issues. Plus the whole 'not bouncing in a sweeper' thing. I'll know more as I keep driving, but pleased with that. She's lowered that one inch, so the driveline angles are less than at stock height, right? Would that be a better overall angular situation, Bert? All I've read seems to think the pinion angle isn't all that an issue for a 1 inch lower... You can see the list below what I've done, if that helps. Only adjustable thing I have back there is the pahnard bar. Much appreciative of your help on that, sir! Always learning...

Bert

same here

I am not exactly sure how this all plays out with lowering, etc . . .. my understanding is that you can "luck out" and end up with no vibrations (which implies correct pinion angle) with no adjustment, or in some cases the adjustment will be needed; bottom line is if it runs smooth, then apparently it is good

I'm guessing the "bouncing in a sweeper" thing might have been due to the driveshaft center joint "thunking around" but that is just a SWAG . . . again if it is gone, it's good

houtex

Yeah, that's all I can figure too. Maybe it was inducing a sideways lean of the center, which torqued it up a little, which untorqued, which caused the axle to torque up or untorque itself, and then the body reacted because panhard bar...

...nah, that's silly. Whatevers, she seemed good on all that, so happy camper! Thanks, Bert!

OldF111Flyer

Do you still have your Mustang that you put the ford performance DS in? If so is it working well for you? I have a completely stock 2014 GT manual transmission and as speed rises above 50 a thrumming vibration starts. It increases in frequency up to about 75-80 then I think it’s so fast it blends in. Tires balanced twice and checked for out of round so they’re not the problem. Clutch in or out, in gear or out, the vibe is speed related. I also have the characteristic clunking when shifting up to about 4th then I don’t notice it. I haven’t been able to get the car on a lift to check the DS but I suspect from reading on the several Mustang forums that it may be the problem. 26850 original miles.

05stangkc

This Maybe Helpful

Especially Post 4

https://themustangsource.com/forums/...ration-550939/

KC

Bert

it would be unusual for the DS to be worn out with only 27K miles but I guess corrosion could contribute; was the car driven through winters in the north?

m05fastbackGT

Agree 100% about unusual for DS to be worn out with just 27k miles under normal conditions.

351venom

I also purchased a Ford Racing aluminum drive shaft, late last year. Finally installed it a couple weekends ago with my oldest son. Not very hard to do. Originally I had a slight vibration at 79-83 mph. It also had a very slight clunk when shifting into DRIVE. My 2011 GT convertible now has about 42,000 miles. I drive this baby everywhere! And everything is now smooth as silk or else I’m just dreaming. I’m very glad to get that old bulky 2 piece DS out of there. The new DS fit perfectly.
*I had to use a “tap” to clean the rear end yoke threads of old, dried ‘thread lock’ material before installing the 6 new bolts.


1-TRICK PONY @ October 2023, Biloxi, Mississippi,
Yearly weeklong ‘CRUZIN THE COAST’. Estimated 12 thousand cars attended the gathering past 2023.
(Largest southeast gathering every year - 1st week in October)

m05fastbackGT

Thanks for sharing.. Just one question, did you also have to install a bumpsteer kit? If I understand correctly, once the driveshaft is changed to a one-piece, it also changes the pinion angle which therefore requires a bumpsteer kit to readjust the pinion angle back to within OEM specs

05stangkc

This Might Be Interesting to Add To Topic!

The Angle of The Dangle is Critical To Optimum Performance!

KC

m05fastbackGT

Very nice find! I believe this is also when upgrading to an adjustable upper control arm becomes beneficial as well towards readjusting the pinion angle.

351venom

IMO, not needed. This new install eliminated 2 u-joints, and reduced some of the offset original pinion angle. It also reduces the DS weight by half. And I still have my stock suspension, not lowered, so Im good to go!
(the new u-joints are higher quality, also)

Just My 2 cents

05stangkc

Likely Not, I Agree with you, But if it was Lowered Car Could Be Tipping Point. Just a Good Thing For People To Be Aware of. I'm Sure Many Would Get The Deer in The Headlights Look if you Said PINION ANGLE. It's Easy for Us Who Have Been around Cars For Decades To Understand But When We Post We Have To Take into Consideration The Newcomer. I Find Myself Tossing Terms out & Finding Out The OP Does Not Have a Clue What I Am Talking About & The Inverse When We Over explain & The Op Maybe More Know More Than The Person Replying! We Can't Always Perceive The Skill Level of The OP or Person Reading The Thread, Who Knows How Many Years Later!

So The More Information The Better For All To Benefit From Thread.

On a Side Note Back in The Day Before Vin Numbers Were Mandatory We Had a Saying. I would Smile Ear To Ear if I Could Just get Make Model & Year! I Have Had To Specify Parts With Some of The Worst Info You Can Think Of! For Example Oh It's that Big Ford With The Big V-8 and It's Going Kaplunk! My Husband Said He Needs One and You Would Know What I Am Talking About! So After a Phone Call It Would Be a Midsize car With The Smallest Engine Available and It Was The Shift Collar Had Fractured So it Would Pop out of Park!


KC

m05fastbackGT

I wasn't 100% sure, which was the reason for the question, but thanks for following up and for setting the record straight, much appreciated.

I sort of suspected that when lowering the suspension may result in changing the pinion angle, but it also depends by the amount the suspension is lowered... From my understanding, if the suspension is lowered under 1.5" the pinion angle does not require readjustment... However, if the suspension is lowered beyond 1.5" the pinion angle will then require readjustment by adding an adjustable upper control arm and possibly adding a bumpsteer kit for correcting the geometry of the front wheels.... I also thought that when upgrading to an aftermarket drive shaft may also change the pinion angle, but thanks to 351venom's post, we can all rest easy knowing that by just upgrading to an aftermarket drive shaft alone, does not alter the pinion angle to the degree which would then require readjustment by upgrading to an adjustable upper control arm along with adding a bumpsteer kit for correcting the geometry of the front wheels..

https://www.steeda.com/steeda-mustan...-555-8106.html