Phasing a driveshaft!

[Biggerhammer]

This is not a post about "Star Trek"! 


A lot of people are now into modifying their Zooks and afterwards they are experiencing vibes! Most of the time it because they reinstalled the driveshaft out of phase. Here is what to look for and how to get you D-shaft back into phase!


Here's a rear shaft clearly out of phase. The "ears" are out of phase.


After a little elbow grease with the wire brush, you can see the alignment dot to the right of the pic.


Here's the corosponding alignment dot on the splines.


Here the shaft and the slip yoke are lined up. (dots faceing each other)


A closer pic of the "Dot's"


Here is the shaft correctly "Phased". You can see the orientation of the "Ears" of the main shaft and the slip yoke, they line up!

[phoenix827]

Nice write-up BH!! Thanx!

[Biggerhammer]

With so many new folks coming into the BBS I thought I would help a little.

[Salamander]

Yeah, that really was a great write up!  I'm sure it will be referenced often.

[ROCKRASH]

NICE WRITE UP. THATS SOMETHING MOST PEOPLE WOULDN'T KNOW OR THINK OF.

[jakkyl]

Now, Assuming your on the trail and your driveshaft pops out...     and you can't clean the shaft off enough to see the dots.  Can you just match the flanges?  What I'm getting at is, can they be 180 off or will that cause a vibration just the same...?

[XS CASH]

From what I have been told all it takes is to be one tooth off to get vibration.  I phased mine a week ago...twice and still have a vibration...so I think it maybe in my u-joints.

[Biggerhammer]

From what I have been told all it takes is to be one tooth off to get vibration.  I phased mine a week ago...twice and still have a vibration...so I think it maybe in my u-joints.

You may have a bent d-shaft.

[GeneralChaos]

Thanks

When I reinstalled my engine I didn't do that so I guess I'm doing it this weekend cause I think mine is out.

Steve

[santanasj10]

hmm, funny that, ive seen a few different shafts now and have looked for the dot / hole on them all and have never seen one.
my friend who has had over 12 jeeps has never seen them either.
yet the haynes manual clearly shows 2 shafts with the holes in 

ive a couple of samurai ones here and they dont have any holes .
i cant see that they have to be spot on if they dont have the holes.
cause how would you know if it was spot on without the holes lol

[Suzuki OffRoader]

If there is no dot, just level the ears.

[NC Zuk]

If there is no dot, just level the ears.

ANd then if it still vibrates take them apart and spin the slipyoke 180 degrees.  If you still have vibes after that you either have a bent drive shaft or bad u-joints.

[GA_ZUKI]

hey i cant find the dot on mine

[Biggerhammer]

Thats because you turned the piece you cut upside down and welded the dots together. 

[GA_ZUKI]

OH,..... i always like connecting the dots

[Zukisam]

Thanks alot ya big JERK , now I have work to get done this weekend!! Oh Yeah, great write-up. I never knew there were dots. GA_ZUKI, nice ext. SY !!

Jason

[Bama Zuk]

I guess I know what I have to do this evening

[sierrafreak]

When putting my drive line back together after the clutch replacement two days ago i looked everywhere for the dots but could only find one on the shaft that slides into the other bit but nothing on the other ones???

Nice write up anyways looked very professional 

[Biggerhammer]

With the 3 Zooks I have owned, they all had the "Dot's". From what I have heard some have them and some don't. As long as you mark the shaft before you pull it apart you should be ok.



Thank you for the kind words.

[MaineZuke]

you don't need dots.
you don't need to make marks.

just line up the ujoints the same way when you put the shaft together.

[Walker]

have a custom double cardigan rear in on of my zuks, but I'll have to check the other out tomorrow. would imagine that applies to the front also but who's front shaft spins that fast anyway.

[NC Zuk]

have a custom double cardigan rear in on of my zuks,

Your Zuk has 2 sweaters? 

[Walker]

sorry maybe wrong word. my rear shaft has 3 u-joints in it. for more angle, like the ones on the front of jeeps and Chevy's. as a matter of fact it looks just like the set up on the front of my 88 suburban 1/2 ton 4wd.

[Zukisam]

Can someone describe how a Yota shaft should be phased? I was talking to POWERSTROKEN about the one I got from Golddigger and we were confusing each other. Anyway, what U-joints do you line up? The ones ON the shaft or the ones on the CV?

thanks
Jason

[ack]

Nice pictorial!

Plus, it uses a lot less bandwidth than my video on the topic! 

If you have a Samurai driveshaft, you'll have those marks.  All bets are off on other makes -- you'll have to "eyeball" the flange ears when reassembling if the manufacturer did not provide marks like the wonderful folks at Suzuki. 

Depending on the spline count/size, there may be only one correct spline alignment.  So check the "phase" of the U-joint yokes and flange "ears" if the driveshaft is not marked.

[Vagabond]

Your Zuk has 2 sweaters? 

Make sure that the buttons are in phase... 

[Trailduster79]

No pics just red x's

[Biggerhammer]

I still have all the original pics. Let me see what I can do about getting them replaced.

[Biggerhammer]

No pics just red x's

All fixed and the pics are back. 

This is not a post about "Star Trek"! 


A lot of people are now into modifying their Zooks and afterwards they are experiencing vibes! Most of the time it because they reinstalled the driveshaft out of phase. Here is what to look for and how to get you D-shaft back into phase!


Here's a rear shaft clearly out of phase. The "ears" are out of phase.


After a little elbow grease with the wire brush, you can see the alignment dot to the right of the pic.


Here's the corosponding alignment dot on the splines.


Here the shaft and the slip yoke are lined up. (dots faceing each other)


A closer pic of the "Dot's"


Here is the shaft correctly "Phased". You can see the orientation of the "Ears" of the main shaft and the slip yoke, they line up!

[Jo Joe]

Might be a dumb question.... but...

Does a front drive shaft get phased?


I just did the rear and it cured my t-case shifter vibes. 

[CoraZuki]

Might be a dumb question.... but...

Does a front drive shaft get phased?


I just did the rear and it cured my t-case shifter vibes. 

Yes the front is the same.  You just wont notice it unles you are in 4WD. 

This is a great writeup.  There is one other problem with d-shaft vibration.  When I went from SPOA to SPOA with YJ springs I got bad vibrations from both d-shafts because the angle of the u-joints were way off.  If one u-joint is at more of an angle than the other the d-shaft will be out of phase even if the ears are  in line.
This how the angles of the u-joints should be for standard and cv d-shafts.





Hope this helps.

[Jo Joe]

Thanks,
 
 Looking at the front DS the ears look correct. I need some motivation to pull that front shaft down since I'm doing other things to the sammy as well at the moment. Would be nice to know the marks are aligned on the front. I don't use 4wd at high speed anyway. The bolts n nuts on my front shaft are stripped by PO, so I'll have to vise grip them off.

Now back to my clicky starter free fix mod that I'm wiring up. 

[Ebernard]

Zuk1972 just showed me how to do this today.  Figures I would find a killer write up on the topic as soon as I didn't need it anymore 

Good JOB

[Biggerhammer]

Shameless bump for the new people.

[nemo]

Biggerhammer, just picked up my first Sami and it has been raised. I saw your Phasing a driveshaft and read it but the pictures are not coming through. Is there any way you still have them and could email them to me (tilley_ed@hotmail.com)?

Thanks
nemo

[Biggerhammer]

Biggerhammer, just picked up my first Sami and it has been raised. I saw your Phasing a driveshaft and read it but the pictures are not coming through. Is there any way you still have them and could email them to me (tilley_ed@hotmail.com)?

Thanks
nemo

Try looking at post #28 in this thread, they are there... They are also in my "Gallery" here on the BBS.

[godzukiman]

glad this was not a trekkie blog!  good info! u think it is the same or similar for toyota d shafts?

[Biggerhammer]

Thought this should be where it could be found... Not buried 8 pages deep.

[ack]

This a good one to keep near the top.  Nice bump!

(it's also searchable using driveshaft at... well know where...   )

[Errol]

Good info to know.  I put a new u joint in a while back and didn't even think abut this could be the cause of one of my various vibrations I think I'll pull it apart tonight and check.