1G Driveshaft Questions

[blueman803]

Hey, I just picked up a 92 awd with tranny, transfer case, and rear end. The only problem is that it doesn't have a driveshaft. I am unfamiliar with an awd drivetrain and was hoping for some direction.

1) What driveshaft will fit a 92? 91-94? Aren't there are a different amount of splines for the 90?

2)What should be reconditioned since I will have all this off the car anyway?

3)Does the driveshaft need to be balanced in anyway?

Thanks

 

[dsmcrazyspiff]

90-94 driveshafts are all the same the only spline difference is in the transfer case

 

[turbo90gsx]

90-94 driveshafts are all the same the only spline difference is in the transfer case

What he said. Also when you get the driveshaft, check the carrier bearings for play, they may need either silicon injected, or replacement. Also check the the front yoke for leakage. If there is ANY sign of leakage, replace the yoke. Other things to check are the u-joints.

 

[DSM90AWD]

2)What should be reconditioned since I will have all this off the car anyway?

- Front yoke seal (inside the yoke) should be checked for leakage. If leaking can just seal the inside with silicone or better yet just replace the whole front u-joint w/ yoke (~$30 at JNZ Tuning ). If the u-joint does not rotate freely without binding, definitely order the kit.

- Lobro joint boot should not be torn as that would indicate the joint has been contaminated and will likely fail in short order. This part is pretty expensive so be selective when shopping for a driveshaft. Boot tearing is generally the result of not supporting this joint durrign D-S removal (i.e. extreme angles = pinching of boot).

- Front and rear Carrier Bearings should be checked for wear. Over time the inner rubber support will disintigrate causing excessive lateral D-S freeplay. Can do the Silicone Fix or pop $65 each for new ones.

- Check u-joints for binding. Binding u-joints will create an imbalance of the shaft and WILL destroy those new Carrier Bearings (I know this firsthand), or cause severe vibrations if you did the silicone method. FYI.. it's $20 cheeper to buy the Yoke Repair kit and pirate the u-joint than to buy a factory replacement u-joint (Josh at JNZ keyed me on in this )

3)Does the driveshaft need to be balanced in anyway?

If you mark all the joints prior to disassembly and reinstall the same way you should not need to re-balance

 

[blueman803]

I don't have a driveshaft to mark on the car. It would be a driveshaft out of another car. So does that change your balancing answer?

 

[DSM90AWD]

I meant disassembling the D-S to replace the individual components. You should take a silver sharpie and make a tick mark on each side of every joint (u-joints, lobro..etc) that will be separated.

The factory D-S is balanced (note the welded weight(s) on the rearmost shaft) after final assembly. So if you keep the same orientation of the separate shafts, it should be close to balanced.

When I rebuilt mine I had trouble finding a place to balance a 3-piece shaft so I didn't have it balanced and was fine. I can say it was fine as when you do the "silicone fix" to the Carrier Bearings you will feel any imbalance in the shaft as you've defeated ~90% of it's ability to dampen vibrations. Mine vibrated like a mo-fo imediately after the C-B silicone fix, which I corrected ~85% by positioning a worm clamp to the rear-most section of D-S in different spots until I'd effectively re-balanced it (yes ghetto but effective ).

I then had some time/$ to correct the real problem which was a bad rearmost u-joint. Once that was replaced the worm clamp came off and had no vibration whatsoever.

Sorry for the "story", but I figured to be as complete as possible.

There are plenty of HowTos on VFAQ