Expert: Vern Bullock - 2/26/2008

Question
Vern, I sure wished I had come across this site before I took out the driveshaft on my 59'.  I removed it, had the center support bearing replaced as well as the 3 u-joints.  I didn't pay any attention to marking the mating parts and now am having vibration problems.  Is there anything I can do myself to correct the problem?  Thanks!

Answer
Hi John:
Your problem could be several things. First of all, what problems were you experiencing that led up to you removing the driveshaft and replacing the bearings and U-joints? I'm assuming there was no vibration before you removed it. If this was the case, it could be out of balanced. After replacing parts on a driveshaft, balancing is the most overlooked item. At what speed are you getting vibration?

Did you replace the O-ring balancing clamps? If not, did you put the old  ones back in the same place? If there were no balancing clamps on the driveshaft, it may need some now. Most likely this problem was cause by the new U-joints. The angles are important.

You have two options:

1. Take the car to a transmission shop that understands older cars. Make sure they have a high-speed driveshaft balancer. Modern transmission shops wouldn't have a clue. The drive train technology they are accustom to is totally different in today's automobiles.

2. You could remove it again yourself and take it to be balanced. The key is making sure the shop knows how to properly balance it at high-speed. The concept is similar to balancing tires, except the weights are O-ring brackets instead of leaded clamps used on tires.

Hope this helps.