Aluminum Driveshaft, who is the best for the $$$???

I need some advice regarding what company you would recommend by experience for building a 3 1/2 inch aluminum driveshaft for a B-Body Mopar. I am considering PST, Mark Williams, and Denny's so far. I want to have one built using a Strange U1666 1350 U joint trans slip yoke I have already. Goal is to have the driveshaft be high speed vibration free, strong, and reliable for a long time. Needs to be able to live with 505 stroker 620 HP/TQ in 4000 lb street/strip car with driver. Best bang for the buck and warranty are also big considerations. I would like to keep the cost down around $400 for the new aluminum driveshaft. Happy Thanksgiving !

http://www.pstds.com/

Inland Drive Shaft or Victory that you can order through Mancini's

Wiles Driveshaft in TN does all ours and he is about the cheapest I have seen. Think a 3.5 made from .125 wall tubing is around $320 with no yoke

Dynotech hands down.

Dynotech

Thanks for the quick replies with recommendations. Wiles Racing Shaft has some great looking driveshafts for very reasonable prices for sure. I'll give them a call along with Inland and Dynotech. I've tried calling Dynotech for the past few weeks and they never answer the phone or reply to emails. Wondering if they are still in business. Additional recommendations are still welcome.

http://www.wilesdriveshafts.com/id3.html

What kind of weight reduction/rotating mass are you wanting and do you know the weight of your steel shaft?

I've been told by Mark Williams and PST, that an aluminum 3 1/2" driveshaft would save at least 7-8 pounds over the 52 1/8" inch length, 3.5" chromoly Dynotech driveshaft I have currently. I've tried to contact Dynotech for a month now, but no success. My main goal is to improve a bad high speed vibration problem (75 -110 mph) which I believe is mainly due to the driveshaft being about 1 inch too short. Pinion angle has been checked and corrected to 2 degrees. New radial tires on aluminum wheels all around. I can push the driveshaft yoke into the 727 tail shaft about 1 3/4". Cass (Dr. Diff) and Mark Williams recommend having only 3/4" travel for the slip yoke. I though if I have to get a new driveshaft, maybe try an aluminum one instead of chromoly.

Any one ever had this type of high speed driveshaft vibration due to the driveshaft being too short? Did a correct length driveshaft fix the vibration issue?

Denny's hands down.....They are not far from me, and service is awesome....And I have yet to wreck one and I am over 800hp with their aluminum shaft

I purchased mine from Dyno-Tech for $440 with yoke. Runs close 900hp@3350lbs. 400 passes and counting.
Doug

All the company suggestions with "hands down" after the comment. Why are they THE one hands down? Because you like them, good service, whatever? That's fine, but do you have any experience with the others to say they aren't the same?

Reading up, they ALL use .125 wall 6061 material, with Spicer joints and your choice of yokes. All of them have the option of welded or glued and probably all buy their ends from the same place. So basically they are all building the same shaft. Some tend to think they get a better product when they use the well known name company. Many times the name only costs you more for the same product.

Now that said, if you have plenty of spline engagement, the shaft being an 1" too short is likely not your problem.

I actually like chrome moly better. More strength with less diameter. I used MW because they used to pay contingency.

You've been on here long enough to know that's the pattern with EVERY request for a recommendation on Moparts. "MY guy is the best and everyone else is a poor second choice!" Carbs, cams, heads, converters... it's a broken record.

I can usually predict who recommends what because it's often the same people saying the same thing over and over again. He11, I'm probably guilty of it, too, but at least I recognize it.

Oh, how strong is a 3" chro-moly drive shaft? I'm not sure that I have room for a 3.5" between the style of drive shaft loop and my x-pipe exhaust system.

I had the same problem when I built my Challenger. It has to do with the length and the "jump rope" effect. 3" chrome is what I ended up with. 0 issues and more than 1,500 passes at 140+ mph. Travis at Mark Williams would be more than happy to do some splainin' to you.

Oh yeah, I know how it works. I think I had a Denny's alum shaft in my own car.

Ralph (Wiles) is kind of the "go to guy" for the Dirt Late Model guys. His shop is right next to a dyno shop I use at times, he actually owns the building. So we were up there several years ago and he showed us the driveshaft shop. He has state of the art equipment. Asked him why he didn't do drag race shafts. He said nobody had ever asked him to......LOL!!!! So me and some others asked him to and now he does a lot of drag race stuff. We have one of his carbon shafts in our radial car.

So the OP asked about "for the money". While every company mentioned builds a great shaft, I feel Ralph's is just as good and he is cheaper than them. When you call Wiles, you talk to Ralph, not a sales guy

I could bash another company that screwed up at least three of ours, but since nobody suggested them, I left it alone...Next time, I will just post a picture with their logo on it.

Often times, its not about who supplies the tubing, U-joints and weld yokes.

The key is how straight and how balanced the finished product is.

Yep... I had a well known company make a shaft
for me and it turned out to be junk.. was .040
out of true and the balance was way off.. cost
me another $350 to get another from another
company.. now all I use is Dynotech.. they are
local so I can pick it up the next day.. you
wouldnt think .040 is much but it is

From the above post -

"Yep... I had a well known company make a shaft
for me and it turned out to be junk.. was .040
out of true and the balance was way off.. cost
me another $350 to get another from another
company.. now all I use is Dynotech.. they are
local so I can pick it up the next day.. you
wouldnt think .040 is much but it is"


Check a late model Dodge service manual - for a truck prop shaft - .010" is max at the weld ends and .015" in the center. That's for a truck running down the road - 2000 - 3000 rpm.

Now spin that prop shaft at engine speed down the track - 6500 and above.

Yeah I know.. but being I bought a new shaft I
expected it to be good.. my mistake.. but since
then I have used Dynotech and they have been great

Hey there Mr. P - I am agreeing with you - .040" is way out - the point of my post is you would think a "shop" doing this kind of work would follow some basic guidelines for runout. Was wondering if they ever made it right? Just wondering.

I took it back but they said I MUST have done something
to it to be out like that.. I told them I pulled it out
and turned it 180 then tried it again... was still bad
but they didnt want to give my money back..it had a total
of 3 passes on it

So, which shop is this that sells nonrefundable banana-shaped shafts?

Mr P if interested in salvaging the shaft call a local marina service shop and ask where they take shafts that need straightening. Boat prop shafts are always getting bent.

I forget which shop it was and I dont want to bad
mouth the wrong shop but it was one of the more well
known places.. this was about 20 years ago when I
built my Valiant

I took off all the parts and trashed the tube.. but I
know what your saying about the marinas getting solid
shafts straightened .. I had my old boats shaft done

Got any driveline company's in your city?

We have several and I deal with a couple of them since I own a fleet of trucks. I had one built for BB E body over 10 years ago. It runs smooth to over 100 MPH and was very reasonable in cost.

This is coming from someone who has bought a ton of Mark Williams products over the years. IMO shipping is too high for something common like a drive shaft that can be made local for a door car. Yes even for a "race" car.

Yup I weighed it and it weighed less than my steel driveshaft.

I went from a 8.75 rear to a dana rear and needed it an inch longer I think? Took my old shaft down there to the local driveline shop and said I want it an inch longer and they got it right the first time. I know them also so why not support the local guy?

i always support the local guy when possible. but with that said, make sure your local shop can balance the shaft at more than 1000rpm. the truck places around here only have low rpm balance. when you combine deep gears and overdrive, your drive shaft is turning considerable rpm at 70+ highway speed, and even more at the track without overdrive in the picture. a truck shop probably isn't the place to consider obtaining a shaft from. i've run into this too many times to not think in this manner.

I don't buy this, my trucks have 6:13 and 5:38 gears in them...The truck driveline shops can balance your driveshaft. They do all driveline work, not just trucks.

Yes they have steep gears but also have BIG tires
for the loads... they dont turn that many rpms and
it seems that trucks shops dont care if there is a
bit of vibration since they have a lot of vibrations

I noticed that some places like PST will SFI certify a shaft. When is this necessary? Is there a know amount of weight savings from a stock driveshaft to a C/M shaft to an aluminum shaft? normal length, approx. 52". Mine was built so long ago, I don't even know what material it was built from. Local shop where I worked did it. Just trying to decide if an upgrade is worth it. Aluminum doesn't seem to be able to handle to power levels of C/M. I need to weigh mine, later, for comparison to anyone else.

CM is much stronger than 6061.
AL weight savings is only a tiny bit more than the actual difference (in lbs.) even though it's rotating weight, because the mass center of rotation is so small.

Remember: O/D doesn't slow down the driveshaft speed, only the engine speed, the shaft still runs at the rear axle ratio.

Action Machine, best for the money.

Who was the company who built the bad shaft Mike? Was it Cameron's Cove?

My u joint center to center is 42 1/2". Fitted with 1350 joints and a Mark Williams slip yoke. It weighs 21 pounds. Can anyone tell by the weight if this is just old school steel or thinwall C/M? Do I need to upgrade my driveshaft for an 8 second car?

As I said before.. I dont recall.. too many years
now... but it was not the one you named

I'm getting ready to order a driveshaft for my 68 cuda. Being that i'm starting from scratch, what would you guys get, Aluminum or steel? 950 hp 850 tq. street car with a 4 speed. maybe around 3300 lbs. I would like the aluminum for weight savings, if it would be strong enough...

Myself I would go with steel on the street.. I
called Dynotech to see what I should go with..
they said DOM so I did with good U-joints and
yokes

Why aluminum?
Anyone do back to back test?

Pretty pricey back to back test

Aluminum is strong enough for most any application, hardly costs any more and is lighter...........easy choice for me

and this is precisely the issue i have dealt with locally. there are no truck shops HERE that can, or will, high speed balance. if a quality shaft is desired, we have no choice except to order one from a reputable outfit. others have access to truck places that are very good, so that is a plus to them. here, we don't. the truck place that has the best reputation only "high speed balances" to 1000rpm, and swears .030 runout is acceptable. ok for most i guess, but not me.

.030" would make me nervous.

Speaking of Dynotech, I have called them over and over this month trying to contact them about my driveshaft, and no one answers the phone, goes to voicemail every time. I have left messages and sent emails, and no reply in over a month now. Seriously wondering if they are no longer in business?

Its been about 2 years since I was over there.. they
had a lot of business at that time.. cant say why they
dont answer but if they closed the phone wouldnt go
to voice mail

If you're limited to a 3" driveshaft, is there still a weight advantage over CM steel? I'd expect the wall thickness would need to be stepped up over a 3.5".

Update......After a long process of considering the options of driveshafts, I ended up ordering a 3.5 inch chromoly driveshaft with slip yoke from Mark Williams enterprises. MW prices were competitive with everyone, and they seem to be tough to beat with quality and balance process. MW was not in favor of using a 3.5" aluminum driveshaft with my application, mainly due to the car weight with driver (and even more with 3-4 passengers) and horsepower level. They were super fast with delivery. Currently installed and works great. Thanks everyone for the advice.

Best choice you could make. Did Travis help you?

MW has great tech info on site WRT length vs. RPM etc.

Yep, just went through this and mine was .008-.010 out and at 6000 r's and above it was a rattlin scary ride and now is glass smooth past 7000 where I lifted. Balanced and straight make a HUGH difference whatever the material...........Mine is a 3 1/2" CM piece FWIW and was balanced to 3200+ rpm's.........

Jason at MW was who worked with me actually. Very nice to work with.

MW is pretty proud of their stuff but every time I've dealt with them the service has been excellent and the product is choice!

Remember that driveshaft speed tracks your rear axle ratio, not high gear ratio - overdrive doesn't slow the driveshaft down.

It has been a few years but I think that when we updated Tim's road race Valiant he picked up an aluminum driveshaft in a wrecking yard and then we had a local shop shorten it. The OEM aluminum driveshafts are filled with a cardboard like material so you have to be careful when you weld on them.

i've often wondered about that cardboard stuff. how far away from the weld area should it be, and how much does it affect the balance ?