Thread: Custom driveshaft

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I'm one of those that occasionally builds (shortens) my own shafts. It's really not that hard. You do need a way to cut the end of the shaft perfectly square and the ability to weld the yolk but it's not rocket science. For cutting the shaft I normally use a plumbers pipe cutter.

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Then it's pretty much just properly indexing the yolk and hammering/pressing it in. Tacking it in 4 places (rechecking to make sure it stayed square) and welding it.

As far as the cost you were quoted it depends on what's included. The last shaft I built was for the 37. I started with a factory shaft that was too long. I didn't have a driveshaft with the proper yolk to use as a donor so I ended up having to buy a new driveshaft yolk ($50 + shipping).......even if you provided a donor shaft with the proper yolk most shops would charge you at least that for salvaging the used yolk and cleaning it up. Then of course there were 2 new U-joints (about another $50). If I had needed to send the shaft out for balancing (which I didn't) that would have added another $110. Having the driveshaft shop actually do the shortening and welding in a new yolk would have been another $100 putting me at $320 (including shipping).

Basically if the work includes balancing the $350 is really not that out of line (especially when you consider markup on the parts) ......if it's not balanced it seems a bit high.


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