Since a Riviera is a classy car I thought it deserved to be a bit more conservative and ditch the 2 piece for a 1 peice.... No seriously I was flipping through old Hot Rods and found the story of the 63 Riviera with an LS1 and 4L60E and a 1 piece custom driveshaft. Since they don't have any pictures of the back seat and the front is covered by a custom console I have no idea if they sliced up the car to make a 1 peice fit. I would like to get a 1 piece to get rid of that stupid carier bearing in the middle that failed on my in my 70 Riv. Any ideas of if it is possible without slicing the tunnell up? Thanks,
Either one sounds cold right now! I would think the diameter would have to increase quite a bit to handle the torque and torsional vibration. maybe if your rear suspension is "Morgan" tight (read:no springs! uzzled: ) it would not need much clearance/travel in the X. Or, if you got a Gear Vendors OD unit, the trannie would be long enough that it would minimize driveshaft movement.
There's no way a GV Overdrive would fit under my 69. There's just no room between the trans and frame. The carrier bearings fail. We can't do much about that, except to keep them lubed the best we can. I plan on replacing mine in a year or so, just to be safe. It is an easy swap. A little cumbersome, but nothing we can't handle, as long as it is just the carrier bearing/mount we replace and not the CV joints. But if they are kept lubed and we keep our eye on them, we'll be OK. I'm pumping 450HP through mine and I am doing OK with it. What I found that fails more often than the bearing is the vulcanized 2-piece rear half of the driveshaft. Those old things just HATE a hard 1-2 shift. I replaced my rear section with a custom-made one -piece unit.
My 70 had custom steel ones front and back, both 1 piece and I busted the carrier bearing. I'd really like to get rid of it, going to C4 IRS would do it but I just sold mine.... oh well.
Single piece driveshaft for 66 Riviera I know this is an old post but I was wondering if any of you had any luck getting a once piece shaft in a X frame Riviera. I have what is a minor vibrtion problem with all new joints and CSB. I adjusted the center bearing a little forward and made sure that it was mounted square in the frame and that seemed to help. The factory manual says that rear pinion angle does not matter because of the dual CV joints, so I assume that is true. I test drove the car and found the condition improved but still not perfect. I have all poly engine, transmission, and body mount bushing with lots of suspension changes so things are much tighter than stock but I know there should be no vibration at all. Anyway, if the one piece works, what diameter and tubing material and thickness has been proven to work. My current driveshaft is about 4" shorter than stock because of a drivetrain swap but that should increase my clearance anyway. Thanks for the info if possible.
Vibration detection Drake, With all of your changes, it is important to find out what is causing the vibration. Driveshaft vibrations are always vehicle speed sensitive, very similar to tires. Drive shaft vibrations can be caused by a couple of things: 1. U joint operating angles are off. Major issue with modofied/lowered suspension. 2. Driveshaft is not phased properly. The U joints must be set 90 degrees out of phase with each other to cancel out as they rotate. 3. Driveshaft is not balanced correctly. Most driveline speciality shops can handle this quickly. That being said, you have to be able to rule out other sources of the vibration such as engine/motor mounts. Take the vehicle up to the vibration speed on a ligthly traveled road. Make sure no one is behind you and shut the engine off. If the vibration is still there. it is driveline/tire related. If the vibration is gone, it is engine related. There is a company that makes an aluminum CSB housing with a poly bearing mount. It is used in 58 to 64 fullsized Chevys. I can't find my other information on it, but a web search should turn it up! Good Luck, Tim McCluskey
What driveline did you transplant into the car? About the only thing I can think of longer than a TH400 is a TH700R4 or 4L60E or maybe a 4L80E.
Better get a bucket Better get a bucket .... unless you like Resto-mods or customs. It has a ZZ4 crate with a 700R4. Daily driver.
Thanks for the info Tim McCluskey, Thanks for the info. I have been driving the car several hundered miles this week driving and have certainly verified that the vibration is driveline related. Happens from 65-75 mph. It is better since I adjusted the plan view of the Center Carrier bearing but it is still noticable in that range. I think my next step will be to pull the driveshaft and have it balanced (again) and check the phasing angle (again). My driveshaft has no rubber sleeve, which is good. However, I was wondering what is considered acceptable play in the center bearing. It is very new but if you pry on the driveshaft a little it moves around (almost 1/2") within the carrier bearing. This is all distortion of the rubber and I can see that it is not torn or broken. Is that normal? Drake
I won't hate on you too bad... though going chebby hurts. I'm going to be swapping the motor in my 1st Gen Riv when I get my hand one it. But mine is staying Buick with a 4.2L Turbo6. Need to step up to EFI if you are going to keep the chebby in there, get a B-body LT-1 and by the time you do that I'll have a fuel tank solution worked out for the hi pressure EFI system.
Hanger distortion Drake, The distortion of a 1/2 inch is pretty normal for a rubber hanger. Probably not the prop shaft angles causing the vibration at that hi speed, the angles would not change with speed, only with torque application. If you already had the shaft balanced I would look for a driveline shop that could balance the propshaft in the vehicle. They use a tool called a Electronic Vibration Ananlyzer (EVA) and a strobe style timing light. This makes sure that your drive shaft and pinion flange are balanced as an assembly. A little more expensive, but it should smooth the driveline nicely! Tim
