Driveshaft seems to be delaminating.

[TBI355]

I have a very heavy duty looking aluminum driveshaft in my truck. It has this fiberglass looking coating on it, and the coating is cracked approximately 40% down the side and is peeling back, can I somehow tear the rest of this off and be safe? It seems to be throwing my driveshaft out of balance. Has anyone had this problem? With just having bought a new engine and exhaust, I need to get this done a cheap as possible until more funds are available. Any advise is greatly appreciated!------Corey

 

[Tempted]

Hm, reminds me of the early 2000 driveshafts in the PI Crown Victoria cop cars. They were called aluminum carbon matrix and, while they did much better at high speeds(most PI Vics are limited to something like 120 while the ones with the carbon shaft were not limited) they weren't very strong and delaminated after a while. They stopped using them due to the extra cost and lack of reliability. I can't say if you can safely remove it from your driveshaft but I know that you can pick up stock shafts for our trucks for dirt cheap used. You can use them from burbs, Tahoes, other trucks with the same length(1500s of course).

 

[TBI355]

Thanks, good info, Ill see if I can get one at the yard. And grease my yoke while its out. The common clunk upon takeoff is driving me batshit crazy.

 

[Tempted]

Be careful getting a drive shaft at a scrap yard. Most of those places use fork lifts to move the vehicles.

 

[chevy_man]

Measure your yokes and end to end length. Find a driveshaft out of an older chevy that's steel. The fiberglass ones are also prone to grenade at high speeds.

The stock shaft in my 88 RCLB K1500 w/700r4 was within 1/8" of the 91 K2500 RCLB w/5spd. that I stole my 14blt sf out of, so I used the K2500 shaft to get the larger u-joints.
Using this info, I'd say that if you measure your shaft and go to the junkyard looking for a 88-93 in the same body style (ec,cc, etc.) and C1500 you should be able to come up with a cheap solution to get a stronger shaft and not have to worry about a custom one in the future. Take a straight edge with you and check for straightness and also look for any dent/dings as these will cause balance issues.

IMO, I can't believe they used those fiberglass shafts at all, one decent rock hit and they're toast. I'd imagine with as much gravel as I drive (and how polished my driveshaft is) that I'd have toasted several by now.

 

[1997chevydriver]

I have one of those aluminum driveshafts with the fiberglass covering on it (well HAD fiberglass)... It decided to come off doing about 85-90 mph. Damn did that thing ever make alot of racket coming out from under the truck. The aluminum under the fiberglass is perfectly usable still, so I just painted the driveshaft black so it wasn't as noticeable

 

[Merritt31]

I have one of those aluminum driveshafts with the fiberglass covering on it (well HAD fiberglass)... It decided to come off doing about 85-90 mph. Damn did that thing ever make alot of racket coming out from under the truck. The aluminum under the fiberglass is perfectly usable still, so I just painted the driveshaft black so it wasn't as noticeable

Any chance you're still on here?