Any Driveshaft Experts Out There?

[w30bob]

Hi Guys,

I've got a rear driveshaft that has a dent in the tube. Can that be fixed or is it cheaper to have a driveshaft guy replace the tube and weld on my ends? I've never dealt with a driveshaft shop so I don't have any idea regarding what they charge for such a thing. Anybody ever pulled a dent on a driveshaft successfully......or is it stupid to try?

thanks,
bob

[LickskilletM37]

A dented driveshaft will be prone to buckling under high torque. I wouldn't try to pull out the dent because you really want a perfectly round cylinder to carry to torque.

The best option in my opinion would be to have a new tube welded onto your ends.
I've had driveshafts made up for cars in the past and this type of work would have been $100. This was 15 years ago, so I'm not sure what the price would be today.

They may be able to just cut out the bad section and weld in a short section of tube.

They will have to balance it if they do any work to it.


Chuck

[w30bob]

Chuck.....good point. I guess I knew the answer, it's just that is see a lot of driveshafts for sale on the web for M37s that are dented and I thought maybe I was missing something regarding how easily that could be repaired. My shaft is dented rather severely, so I'll look into having it repaired professionally or replaced.

thanks,
bob

[52 M-42]

Once the shaft is dented you're done. You will need to replace and balance the shaft. It will also be the cheapest and easiest way to cure the problem. Any other fix ends up destroying bearings (in the transmission, transfer case, or third member) and u-joints. A catastrophic failure of a u-joint can be exciting. I'm sure that the couple I've had have shortened my life expectancy by a few years.

A new balanced shaft is the way to go.

Just my opinion, though.

52 M-42