C1500 driveshaft conversion to single piece driveshaft

[ethanmccll]

Has anyone interchanged their split c1500 driveshaft to a singular driveshaft. The carrier bearing on my truck is worn out and looks like a pita to replace. I’d much rather have a single driveshaft instead of one with a carrier bearing as there’s less parts to fail.

 

[Nad_Yvalhosert]

There's a reason there's a carrier bearing... because it would be unsafe having a 1 piece driveshaft that long.

 

[mwilliams55555]

Not that hard to do, best to do all the u-joints at the same time, or find a competent machine shop you could drop off and have them put it together

 

[mwilliams55555]

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wife asked, why paint it if it's in middle of truck underneath where nobody else is going to see it, I told her, I know that it's ""go faster"" green, actually John Deere green

 

[Schurkey]

We had a discussion about driveshaft length and critical speeds about a week ago.
www.gmt400.com/threads/carrier-bearing.63141/page-2

Carrier Bearing

My crew cab has the two piece driveshaft, but considering it has a 168" wheelbase, More than three feet longer than a Suburban's lengthy 130'' WB! I knew CCLBs were longer in the WB than 'Burbs but not by that much. it pretty much has to! Yep, I see it now.

www.gmt400.com

IF (big IF) you increase the diameter, or move to aluminum/carbon fiber or some other light-weight, stiff material, you MIGHT be able to swap to a one-piece shaft.

Otherwise, at some higher speed the thing will whip like a jump-rope, fly off, maybe bang-up the bed, gouge the concrete, and flip the truck in the process. That'll be fun, and an adrenaline rush.

"I" would drop it off at a driveshaft specialty shop, and come back when they tell me it's fixed. The shop I use would replace ALL U-joints as a matter of principle, then chuck it on a lathe and verify straightness and balance before putting it all together, ready for installation.

 

[Road Trip]

Has anyone interchanged their split c1500 driveshaft to a singular driveshaft. The carrier bearing on my truck is worn out and looks like a pita to replace. I’d much rather have a single driveshaft instead of one with a carrier bearing as there’s less parts to fail.

I had a friend who purchased a brand new '03(?) 4WD Silverado 1-ton dually
equipped with the 8.1L/Allison drivetrain. And for me one of the most eye-catching
parts of the whole rig was the ginormous 1-piece aluminum driveshaft from the
factory. I would have guessed a 5" diameter?

Anyway, I just went to Rock Auto as if I wanted to buy a new replacement, and
here is what I found:

Note: Driveshaft photo goes with top listing.

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BTW, just an example to get an idea of how Chevy implemented what Schurkey was describing above.

So, the short answer is that it looks like Chevy did offer at least some of the 800-series HD trucks with a 1-piece driveshaft.

It *is* do-able...but what is the price of admission? And maybe with a little sleuthing on your part,
you should be able to come up with the exact length needed, exact yoke required to interface with
your tranny, (diameter, length, & spline count) and u-joint size that your diff is set up for? And
whether you find the exact match in the treasure yard (and rebuild it) ...or take all those specs
to a specialty shop and have a new driveshaft built to fit?

****

The long answer? If you get everything simpatico, then a larger diameter 1-piece driveshaft
like this *should* work. But there's a lot of NHV stuff (like stiffness of your engine/tranny
mounts vs the ones on the truck this came on, stiffness of your frame vs. the next-gen
frames, etc) that may or may not crop up with a swap like this.

I'd hate to talk you into something like this, only to find that this driveshaft was fully engineered
and tested to work in the truck it was shipped with...but at the same time stimulates some
obscure resonance in your truck that the 2-piece driveshaft somehow
managed to avoid? (FWIW I've troubleshot some weird driveshaft vibrations over the years --
there is a finite percentage of engineering voodoo in trying to get *anything* that speeds up &
slows down twice per revolution to run vibration-free at all speeds, torque variations, and how
much load is in the bed. (ie: suspension squat)

Bonus video: Most folks don't realize what really goes on when you have a shaft
with a u-joint on both ends. This is a great, short video by Spicer, a recommended view:

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Whatever you decide, please reply back with what you implemented & how it worked out.
I'm living vicariously through your proposed driveshaft experimentation. :0)

Cheers --