Well I managed to snap the driveshaft bearing in the middle of my Z's 2 piece driveshaft, no big deal in the grand scheme of things. Didnt lunch anything up so thats cool. Tony gave me the option of replacing it with another 2 piece shaft or a single piece. According to him his customers go about 50/50 on this choice and theres no real differance in performance and reliability from what I've heard.

Has anybody else done this and what are the pros and cons of a 1 piece versus a 2 piece, if any? Keep in mind this is just a daily driver, no track time or mods. Just driving on the roads like a maniac.

 

id say, just do whatever is cheaper for you

 

For a DD, I say go 2-piece. 1-piece come with a risk of being misbalanced and causing vibration problems. 2-piece won't have this issue.

The tradeoff is that the CSB on a 2-piece does require replacement occasionally...

If you don't want to replace the CSB, get a 1-piece. If you don't want to risk going through a few exchanges to get a 1-piece that doesn't vibrate, go with the 2-piece.

 

I opted for the 1 piece since it was a few hundred dollars cheaper and Tony assures me it's balanced and doesnt vibrate at all. Hopefully be able to pick er' up today and see how differant it is. It was vibrating for a while, maybe a couple of years, so it didnt really surprise me when it finally broke. I'm just too poor to pro-actively replace most things

 

New center bearing should have been cheaper than a 1-piece. It's not that hard to replace the bearing either.

 

2nd... lol. The Center Support Bearing is $135.

And they assure everyone that it doesn't vibrate, yet I still hear of people having to exchange several of them before getting one that truly doesn't vibrate. All I'm saying is, don't be surprised if you experience vibration.

 

i think that effect is due to the fact that often, the cause of the bearing going out is a bad u-joint. so the u-joint goes out, causes shaking, makes the bearing wear out, that gets replaced, and it still shakes. in many cases.

 

I don't think you really know what you're talking about... or you just expressed yourself very poorly and I have no idea what you just said (improper use of pronouns).

CSB's wear out because they're rubber and underneath the car... rubber underneath the car (or near heat) needs to be replaced sooner or later, that's unavoidable (all bushings and rubber parts are replacement parts). Far more often than not, replacing the CSB will remedy all 2-piece driveshaft problems. (So to say "in many cases" when really it's in hardly any cases is ridiculous - this is coming from someone who has dealt with a fair share of Z32's.)

 

yeah i agree. maybe many cases wasn't the phrase to use. but it has happened like that. i agree though that it will wear out just from being rubber and under the car. but i'd still say that a bad u-joint could be mistaken for the carrier bearing and the scenario above may happen with a frequency that i would not describe as rare either. perhaps "sometimes" is the phrase to use

 

One-Piece from Z1. I think it was like 250. Put it in almost 2 years ago, never had any issues with it as far as vibration or anything.

Furthermore.


What the hecks a u-joint?

 

Universal joints are on the ends of the driveshaft. If you've seen a universal extension for a socket, it's basically the same thing. Without a u-joint, the differential and the transmission would have to be precisely aligned 100% of the time, else something would snap. The u-joints allow some pivoting on each end.

 

Well teh center rubber piece was completely hosed as well as the transmission bracket. Would have just replaced the rubber but there was some excessive wear around all the associated metal on it, apparently it's been shaking around for years.

So, after taking it for a test drive I can honestly say the differance is VERY noticable. Accelleration is so smooth I actually have to pay attention now or I'm speeding in town, without meaning to. 0-60 is like riding on butter, after that I start to get the slightest bit of vibration from the front of the car. At 90 you're humming along nicely with a constant low frequency "bruuuuuuummmm" that is neither unpleasant or worrysome. So the single piece MAY be vibrating more than a 2-piece, but so far I think this may just be something I need to readjust to since I've been driving my G/Fs truck for a week. *barf* *die inside*

I just cant get over how tight the car feels now, it's fricken awesome! After 8 years of driving this sucker it has once again become new and entertaining. This car never ceases to amaze me.