18+ A10 1 Piece Aluminum DS Issues!!

[Lo Pony]

Yes, that is correct on the other end the high spots were opposite, run-out was about .005.

Thank You!

There’s a lesson here for others. Your additive run out tolerances were less than 0.005”, and you still had vibration, even with an ultralight fiber shaft. These are remarkably tight tolerances, and it does confirm how incredibly sensitive these cars are to this vibration harmonic. I wouldn’t even risk buying anything but a fiber shaft now that I see this, because an aluminum shaft will resonate and vibrate a heck of a lot more even with the same run out tolerances.

Now we can see why one shaft does not fit all cars. Because they all have different run out tolerances at the pinion flange! His shaft had essentially no runout but it wasn’t aligned with the flange which had small but not zero runout. Therefore this shaft may vibrate in YOUR car because it may not be a bad match for your flange.

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[ALLKHEINZ]

i dont care which company sees this but DSS, GForce and QA1 shafts are alll JUNK! who cares if it is smooth as butter on there machine, they obviously never tested one on a car for an actual vibration and if they diid they were all drunk....ive had 5 2018+ auto gt’s in the last 2 years and ive tried atleast one ds on each with all of them vibrating....but hold on it gets better, i just had one custom
made and paid $1000 for it, GUESS WHAT FOLKS...its smooth as butter!! so these other manufacturers dont have a clue....dont test it on your in house machine and call it a day, go out buy or borrow a car to test your product on, make sure its perfect and then release it to the public!!! its funny but DSS in particular has given me issues over the years, in 2011 there version one DS vibrate like i had no tires on my car, in 2016 the 1400hp shafts i had broke on a 700rwhp car the first time to the track and it was an auto to boot, in 2018 both an aluminum and a carbon fiber DS vibrate...so thats 4 different times there stuff has shit the bed on my personal cars...would anyone on here go out and buy 4 wheels that wouldnt balance and live with it? probably not, so i suggest these companies not offer the product until they have a solution that factors in each car being slightly different. Lastly stop telling customers that its not there product but rather your car that is the problem....offer a 100% vibration free gaurantee or iyour money back including shipping if it does...stand behind your product and do what it takes to get it right!!

 

[pro 5.0]

What's even worse is you have vendors telling us they have no issues with these products, talk about looking out for number 1 and trying to make money. What material is your custom driveshaft made out of and did they have your car in their possession when they made it ?

 

[18 Smoke]

i dont care which company sees this but DSS, GForce and QA1 shafts are alll JUNK! who cares if it is smooth as butter on there machine, they obviously never tested one on a car for an actual vibration and if they diid they were all drunk....ive had 5 2018+ auto gt’s in the last 2 years and ive tried atleast one ds on each with all of them vibrating....but hold on it gets better, i just had one custom
made and paid $1000 for it, GUESS WHAT FOLKS...its smooth as butter!! so these other manufacturers dont have a clue....dont test it on your in house machine and call it a day, go out buy or borrow a car to test your product on, make sure its perfect and then release it to the public!!! its funny but DSS in particular has given me issues over the years, in 2011 there version one DS vibrate like i had no tires on my car, in 2016 the 1400hp shafts i had broke on a 700rwhp car the first time to the track and it was an auto to boot, in 2018 both an aluminum and a carbon fiber DS vibrate...so thats 4 different times there stuff has shit the bed on my personal cars...would anyone on here go out and buy 4 wheels that wouldnt balance and live with it? probably not, so i suggest these companies not offer the product until they have a solution that factors in each car being slightly different. Lastly stop telling customers that its not there product but rather your car that is the problem....offer a 100% vibration free gaurantee or iyour money back including shipping if it does...stand behind your product and do what it takes to get it right!!

My QA1 cf... smooth as butter! Lol
I know what you’re saying. It’s strange how one can work perfect on one car but not the next. My brother just ordered same one for his 18, so we’ll see

 

[Lo Pony]

i dont care which company sees this but DSS, GForce and QA1 shafts are alll JUNK! who cares if it is smooth as butter on there machine, they obviously never tested one on a car for an actual vibration and if they diid they were all drunk....ive had 5 2018+ auto gt’s in the last 2 years and ive tried atleast one ds on each with all of them vibrating....but hold on it gets better, i just had one custom
made and paid $1000 for it, GUESS WHAT FOLKS...its smooth as butter!! so these other manufacturers dont have a clue....dont test it on your in house machine and call it a day, go out buy or borrow a car to test your product on, make sure its perfect and then release it to the public!!! its funny but DSS in particular has given me issues over the years, in 2011 there version one DS vibrate like i had no tires on my car, in 2016 the 1400hp shafts i had broke on a 700rwhp car the first time to the track and it was an auto to boot, in 2018 both an aluminum and a carbon fiber DS vibrate...so thats 4 different times there stuff has shit the bed on my personal cars...would anyone on here go out and buy 4 wheels that wouldnt balance and live with it? probably not, so i suggest these companies not offer the product until they have a solution that factors in each car being slightly different. Lastly stop telling customers that its not there product but rather your car that is the problem....offer a 100% vibration free gaurantee or iyour money back including shipping if it does...stand behind your product and do what it takes to get it right!!

I feel your pain big-time, regrettably. But, it’s hard to fault these different driveshaft manufacturers because most of them are balanced to within a reasonable spec of what technically should not vibrate. And I agree with you, it is a total crapshoot. Now you can take your new smooth shaft and put it on someone else’s car and it MAY vibrate. In fact, the likelihood of that is very high. These cars are sensitive to as little as a half a gram of weight, and 0.002-0.003” of run out.

To others, There are lessons here in this thread, please read it carefully.

That being said, the ones that promote their parts as a cure all for drivetrain vibrations – now that is almost false advertisement. May work in someone’s case, but probably not mine or yours.

For any prospective buyers, remove your pinion flange, or buy a new one, and send it to the driveshaft manufacturer and have them balance the pinion flange with the new driveshaft as a matched set! Then you will be almost guaranteed to have no vibrations. This is the only way it can be done reliably. Otherwise it’s a total crapshoot as you have seen and opined about.

Think of it as road force balancing for drivetrain parts. Measure radial runouts, Index runouts so that they cancel on opposite sides, bolt parts together, spin, and add weight at the appropriate position to make the whole rotating assembly perfect. That’s what it’s going to take

 

[boB]

Which brings up the question: does Ford balance each driveshaft with it's pinion flange?

 

[NastyPumpkin]

Which brings up the question: does Ford balance each driveshaft with it's pinion flange?

No, they have the pinion flange and trans flange marked with a yellow dot which indicates the high spot, that counter balances the driveshaft that has a yellow dot, which marks the low spot. The tolerances are more open with a two piece driveshaft.

 

[ALLKHEINZ]

if a drives

I feel your pain big-time, regrettably. But, it’s hard to fault these different driveshaft manufacturers because most of them are balanced to within a reasonable spec of what technically should not vibrate. And I agree with you, it is a total crapshoot. Now you can take your new smooth shaft and put it on someone else’s car and it MAY vibrate. In fact, the likelihood of that is very high. These cars are sensitive to as little as a half a gram of weight, and 0.002-0.003” of run out.

To others, There are lessons here in this thread, please read it carefully.

That being said, the ones that promote their parts as a cure all for drivetrain vibrations – now that is almost false advertisement. May work in someone’s case, but probably not mine or yours.

For any prospective buyers, remove your pinion flange, or buy a new one, and send it to the driveshaft manufacturer and have them balance the pinion flange with the new driveshaft as a matched set! Then you will be almost guaranteed to have no vibrations. This is the only way it can be done reliably. Otherwise it’s a total crapshoot as you have seen and opined about.

Think of it as road force balancing for drivetrain parts. Measure radial runouts, Index runouts so that they cancel on opposite sides, bolt parts together, spin, and add weight at the appropriate position to make the whole rotating assembly perfect. That’s what it’s going to take

mine was custom made, ordered over the phone, made to a spec they measured on someone elses 2018/19 auto gt...im sorry but if this company can knock it out of the park on its first try then they are obvi doing something the others are not....there is no way that it should be leas then a 50/50 crap shoot as to weather or not a particular ds will vibrate or not...Ford put a 2 piece in these cars for a reason, so now someone needs to make a stronger lighter 2 piece. heck id even settle for one just as heavy as stock but can hold 1000+ hp...my reasoning for a ds is so i dont get a part of the stock one coming through the floor at the track should it break, sure saving some weight is great but the priority in my mind is one that wont break...a 2 piece obviously deals with any vibrations much better so the manufacturers need to get back to the drawing board or find out why my latest shaft is smooth as butter but my qa1 my gforce and my 2 dss shafts were not...

 

[pro 5.0]

Which company did you order the new driveshaft from ?

 

[Lo Pony]

if a drives


mine was custom made, ordered over the phone, made to a spec they measured on someone elses 2018/19 auto gt...im sorry but if this company can knock it out of the park on its first try then they are obvi doing something the others are not....there is no way that it should be leas then a 50/50 crap shoot as to weather or not a particular ds will vibrate or not...Ford put a 2 piece in these cars for a reason, so now someone needs to make a stronger lighter 2 piece. heck id even settle for one just as heavy as stock but can hold 1000+ hp...my reasoning for a ds is so i dont get a part of the stock one coming through the floor at the track should it break, sure saving some weight is great but the priority in my mind is one that wont break...a 2 piece obviously deals with any vibrations much better so the manufacturers need to get back to the drawing board or find out why my latest shaft is smooth as butter but my qa1 my gforce and my 2 dss shafts were not...

i know that is the way it seems, but your shaft will vibrate on someone else's car. You just got lucky.

 

[RaceHorseV8]

A bit off of the '18-'19 topic but when I did a 5-spd to 6-spd swap on my 2001 cobra (IRS) I had to change the DS and pinion flange. I went with a Ford Racing aluminum and had a vibe when finished. I indexed the shaft/flange and on the 3rd (and final) attempt I hit the balance point. It was a pita since I could have gone the other way and gotten it right the first time. Point is I was about to give up thinking I was wasting my time and effort but out of 4 possible positions that last one made the difference. On that car a small adjustment yielded a good result.

 

[pro 5.0]

mine was custom made, ordered over the phone, made to a spec they measured on someone elses 2018/19 auto gt...im sorry but if this company can knock it out of the park on its first try then they are obvi doing something the others are not....

Who is this mystery company ?

 

[PC 2015]

I now have a Steeda full rear suspension w/aluminum diff bushings. I get some NVH from that, but stock and even with the QA1 CF shaft, I had none. ???

PM sent

 

[PC 2015]

All done with the installation and a good ol’ fashion beating with the QA1 Carbon Fiber driveshaft. It is Smooth as silk up to around 100/110 MPH then there is a very slight vibration (not bad). I might mess with it to make it perfect. It might also go away when I put the 3.15 gear in for the Whipple. Racing this Sunday, I will give my racing review soon!

PM sent

 

[Lo Pony]

A bit off of the '18-'19 topic but when I did a 5-spd to 6-spd swap on my 2001 cobra (IRS) I had to change the DS and pinion flange. I went with a Ford Racing aluminum and had a vibe when finished. I indexed the shaft/flange and on the 3rd (and final) attempt I hit the balance point. It was a pita since I could have gone the other way and gotten it right the first time. Point is I was about to give up thinking I was wasting my time and effort but out of 4 possible positions that last one made the difference. On that car a small adjustment yielded a good result.

Yup, boy those were the days weren’t they? I cut my teeth on the drivetrain vibration problem in a 99 cobra, and I’ve helped so many people solve issues in the 99 to 03s. Those cars were really really sensitive. A half a gram of weight, and a couple of thousandths run out would be enough to just buzz the teeth out of your head. Which is what made the problem in the 2015 through 2017’s that much more aggravating to me.

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