Help vibrations

[sinned]

Yes, running with your driveline angles out of alignment will burnell the joints. Good catch.

[chevzilla396]

Do some research in carbon fiber drive shafts. I have heard that they greatly reduce vibrations because carbon fiber acts as a vibration dampener because of the charicteristics of the material. And on top of that theyre lighter, that helps give you horsepower from the lower rotational mass of the driveshaft. Also the tortional spring rate is about the same as aluminum and in some cases better.

[Blown353]

Originally Posted by chevzilla396

Do some research in carbon fiber drive shafts. I have heard that they greatly reduce vibrations because carbon fiber acts as a vibration dampener because of the charicteristics of the material. And on top of that theyre lighter, that helps give you horsepower from the lower rotational mass of the driveshaft. Also the tortional spring rate is about the same as aluminum and in some cases better.

True; CF driveshafts do dampen vibrations better than a metal shaft; this is due to the damping provided by the resin system holding the graphite fibers together, but the additional damping still won't cover up a poor setup of u-joint operating angles. Out of whack angles at each end cause the acceleration/deceleration events at each u-joint to be out of phase and/or magnitude, causing bad vibes.

CF driveshafts have another problem too... coping with debris impacts, something which should be a big consideration for a street car. A debris hit that would bounce off a metal shaft can totally grenade a CF driveshaft. A friend of mine lost a brand new CF driveshaft in his 4th gen Camaro to a little piece of wood in the road. It impacted the CF shaft and grenaded it, showcasing another advantage of the CF driveshaft: they shred (rather than bend) when they fail catastrophically, causing pretty much no damage to the underside of your car. They do however cause substantial damage to your wallet.

The only way I'd run a CF shaft on a street car is if it was in an enclosed tunnel or shielded from the road in some way. Debris impacts on a driveline are pretty rare (if you watch the road and dodge the stuff) but it would really suck to hit a little piece of debris and need a tow home and a new driveshaft afterwards at the tune of about $800.

Troy