Paul Huizenga

So, this past weekend at the track, on my sixth pass I did a nice burnout, staged up the car, brought it up on the 2-step, and when I let out the clutch, I was rewarded with "BANGthumpthumpthump" and a car that needed a push back to the pits.

I haven't taken it all apart yet, but I am 95% sure that I killed the rear giubo (also referred to as a "guibo") joint on the driveshaft. I don't want to go to the extent of doing a CF driveshaft and metal replacement joints because this car is street-driven, but I would really like to upgrade to something more durable, with better torque capacity than the stock pieces.

I've heard mixed reviews of the Prothane urethane giubos, so I wanted to see if there are any other options available.

Paul Huizenga

Wow, nothing?

cptinjak

Keep your fingers crossed that the guibos are all that you broke. Your description sounds messy.

I have my TT out at the moment, doing this very thing. I did some extensive research on this topic before I bought my replacements, and found "my guibos are trash" threads for every single manufacturer. It seems that, on the forum at least, none of them are indestructible. (besides the solid aluminum ones, but that's another story.) I found enough testimonials for the cheap bavarian auto units that I ended up going that route.

Both guibos shipped to my door for > $100

Jack

lionelhutz

Pay for the good replacement ones. The cheap softer rubber ones act like springs in the drivetrain.

The drivetrain shop sells another version of poly ones. They are rather pricy though.

spoolin7

you're better off to just toss some stock replacements in and consider them a maintenance item. i got a pair of brand new GM ones from ECS for around $200. The BMW ones are hit or miss on if they're the real deal or cheap junk.

Paul Huizenga

Man, I hate to consider removing the torque tube on a routine basis... Fortunately I am already planning on having everything down for a diff swap anyway, but still.

Pumba

As others have written, the rubber or urethane guibos are a maintenance item.

Aluminum parts won't break, but the will cause an eventual failure of your torque tube front bearing.

The only failure-free option is very expensive:



Pfadt Carbon Fiber Drive Shaft Assembly

[1121020]$2,000.00
Click to enlarge The stock drive shaft and rubber guibo ends weigh 8.85 pounds. The Pfadt Carbon Fiber drive shaft assembly weighs only 4.28 pounds!! That is a weight savings of 52%. What's important is that this weight reduction is rotating mass.
Most after market drive shafts require the purchase of heavy rubber or aluminum guibo's to complete the install. These heavy ends eliminate almost all the weight savings over a stock set up and do nothing for improving reliability. The most common drive shaft failure is with the guibo.
Our driveshaft has been tested to 2300 ft-lb of torque on our fixture and we have over 500,000 cycles at 1350 ft-lb of torque for reliability testing. A single cycle at that torque will fail a stock driveshaft.
If you need high performance and reliability advantages, the Pfadt Carbon Fiber Driveshaft is for you!
We have versions available for all 2001 and newer Corvettes.
You may place your order online but before your order can be processed we must speak with you to ensure you are getting the right driveshaft for your application.



Good luck with your decision.

lionelhutz

Someone was (or still is) making the U-joint shafts for the C5? I recall them being something like $800 or $900 for one.

I'm not sure I'd call the Pfadt unit "failure free" yet.

WKMCD

ECS stopped making the U=joint setup when PFADT came out with the CF prop shaft. I accomplishes the same thing - that is getting rid of the guibos. I've shreaded stock ones on the street. Rick Kim - RKT56.com - a vendor here replaced my couplers with poly ones from RPM that expect to last a very long time.

Another option is to put one aluminum coupler in which I've neevr really understood. All it does is put twice as much load on the rubber or poly bushing that's left. Put it this way, no way I'd do that on my car.

Pumba

Please list for us the Pfadt carbon-fiber driveshafts that have failed?

-

lionelhutz

Can you provide the list of cars that have travelled 200,000 with the Pfadt shaft?
Can you provide the long term durability test data?
Can you simply provide the list of cars using the shaft giving their usage and mileage?

Just because there have been no posts here about a part failing doesn't mean it can't fail. Everyone claimed the Titanic was unsinkable until it plummited to the bottom of the Atlantic.

If you're going to claim a part is failure free (ie it can't fail) then it's on you to prove the claim, not on me to disprove it.

cptinjak

I have my driveline out at least once a year. If the BMW guibos fail, they can be replaced pretty easily. lol

Jack

0Jeremy@RPMTransmissions

Considering you are launching on a 2-step I am going to assume you have a good tire on the car. I would highly consider stepping up to the DSS poly couplers that we sell. Launching a manual trans car on a sticky tire is very hard on couplers. The stock replacement units will fail regularly. The Prothane six shooter couplers are the last thing I would put in there. We have seen nothing but problems with them.

bumble-z

RPM, thank's for the info.

Paul Huizenga

Mickey Thompson drag radials, but I am only doing 385 to the tires, according to our Dynojet. It looks like the DSS couplers are the way I am going to go.

RonSSNova

What are these DSS poly couplers please?

As much as I read here, I can't keep up with the abbreviations and what others seem to know as common knowledge.

Thanks,

Ron

0Jeremy@RPMTransmissions

No problem. Always happy to help.

385rwhp still isn't anything to sneeze at. It's obviously already enough to wreak havoc on the stock drivetrain parts lol. The DSS couplers will be strong enough to have you covered for a long time.

Ron,

The DSS couplers are made by The Driveshaft Shop. They are the highest quality poly couplers on the market. They are great for your normal enthusiast that is looking for a strong reliable coupler, but doesn't want the added vibration of the billet aluminum couplers or the large price tag of a carbon fiber prop shafts.

Here is a link to the poly couplers. This link is to the 12mm versions. If your car is an early C5 97-00 it will have 10mm bolts.
http://www.driveshaftshop.com/domest...eshaft-coupler

Paul Huizenga

Jeremy - let me add my own "thank you" as well.

It's going to be a few weeks before I can get on our shop schedule to have the repair work done, but when I do I will update this thread with pictures of the damage...

0Jeremy@RPMTransmissions

You're very welcome.

Definately keep us posted. I'm curious as to what let go.

RonSSNova

Thanks Jeremy! I have this bookmarked. I upgraded my A4 TT to the larger version w/o inspecting the insides. Now I have a vibration! Only under load, always at 2000 rpm. Sounds like couplers? I guess I'll be the first to know.

Ron