Rusted Drive Shaft
Senior Member
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 5,409
Likes: 1
From: Sunny FL
Originally posted by inbred
I think the point that is trying to be made is this:
anybody who spends at least 30 seconds on this site knows how sensitive these trucks are to vibration. The smallest flaw in a tire, the slightest imbalance in a drive shaft, etc., and there's a two page post about these POS vibrating lemon f150's. Anybody who wants to paint their drive shaft, hey have fun, let us see a picture when it's done. Just don't come back whining about a vibration problem. I do steel work with both raw and pre-painted steel. I was really surprised when I found out how much even a thin coat of primer and paint weighs...
Another thing you may not be considering is the prep-work involved. The sanding, etc. necessary will remove metal from the drive shaft, and that will definately affect the balance.
Personally I think it's not a good idea, UNLESS you have it rebalanced afterwards. But that's just my opinion. Follow your own feelings. I've read too many vibration posts over the last 8 months to even bother looking at them anymore.
I think the point that is trying to be made is this:
anybody who spends at least 30 seconds on this site knows how sensitive these trucks are to vibration. The smallest flaw in a tire, the slightest imbalance in a drive shaft, etc., and there's a two page post about these POS vibrating lemon f150's. Anybody who wants to paint their drive shaft, hey have fun, let us see a picture when it's done. Just don't come back whining about a vibration problem. I do steel work with both raw and pre-painted steel. I was really surprised when I found out how much even a thin coat of primer and paint weighs...
Another thing you may not be considering is the prep-work involved. The sanding, etc. necessary will remove metal from the drive shaft, and that will definately affect the balance.
Personally I think it's not a good idea, UNLESS you have it rebalanced afterwards. But that's just my opinion. Follow your own feelings. I've read too many vibration posts over the last 8 months to even bother looking at them anymore.
Member
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 66
Likes: 0
I coated the entire undercarriage with a great undercoating, even the driveshaft, and do not have the slightest vibration. The amount of paint or other material on a driveshaft with such a small diameter will not have a noticable effect. If your driveshaft had the diameter of say a telephone pole or larger and you were painting with actual lead at a sizeable thickness, then yes you would sense vibrations but otherwise you cannot. I work in a biochemistry lab and use ultracentrifuges quite a bit. You can have them unbalanced by up to several grams and detect very little vibration even up to 60,000 rpms. I have a very hard time believing a few grams of paint unbalanced over the entire length of a driveshaft spinning at less than 5000 rpms would cause any vibration whatsoever. Just my two cents, or four.
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 3,115
Likes: 0
From: Winnipeg, Manitoba
This whole issue has been blown out of proportion. I was passing along my experience on this because of the problems that alot of people are having with the vibe issue.
Forget painting, undercoating, or powdercoating the driveshaft. Open any repair manual for any rear wheel drive vehicle, and somewhere it will say that before you remove the driveshaft, mark it. This is because if the shaft isn't put back in in the original position, it will cause the driveline to be out of phase.
This can cause vibe, binding of the driveline, even slip yoke problems. Some vehicles are more sensitive to this than others. I wasn't saying that this was exclusive to the F150. But considering how little this part is seen, why take the chance on doing something that might cause a problem?
Forget painting, undercoating, or powdercoating the driveshaft. Open any repair manual for any rear wheel drive vehicle, and somewhere it will say that before you remove the driveshaft, mark it. This is because if the shaft isn't put back in in the original position, it will cause the driveline to be out of phase.
This can cause vibe, binding of the driveline, even slip yoke problems. Some vehicles are more sensitive to this than others. I wasn't saying that this was exclusive to the F150. But considering how little this part is seen, why take the chance on doing something that might cause a problem?
Senior Member
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,142
Likes: 0
From: Elverson, PA
Originally posted by dzervit
I don't know about you, but I got plenty of babes cooing over my slick driveshaft...
I don't know about you, but I got plenty of babes cooing over my slick driveshaft...
Yet another quote for the Tuff collection...
When threads go way offtrack, Vol. MCVIII...
~John
