Replacing a broken drive shaft and balancing the new one in the vehicle
Good for you. But I thought drive shafts were balanced prior to installation.
Well, I guess I learned something new.
They are as a shaft assembly, but then need additional balance weight added for the particular vehicle in which they are installed.
I was under the impression an Eqiunox is a front wheel drive vehicle… and therefore wouldn’t have a driveshaft (connected to the rear wheels) to be balanced.
Unless this is an all wheel drive model.
Assuming this is an AWD Equinox, the part should not need balancing. If it does, it’s not something you can do. Why do you think it needs balancing?
The replacement shaft assembly is balanced. I installed it with the weghts matching as closely as the original ones positions. From my research apparently needing to balance the shaft after installation is not uncommon! The original was damaged beyond repair. Now I have called around. No one seems to be able to do it. There are twu you tube videos one with the EVA2 and the other with PICO NVH. Do you know of a shop?
No one knows where you are so it’s kind of difficult to suggest a shop. And the odds of someone o this forum being in your area are probably not very high.
Most metro areas have shops listed under “Drivelines”. You might do a search for that. Those shops usually do balancing and balancing a driveshaft is not that rare.
The axle shaft ROD should be balanced before being inserted into the CV joints and any alteration, addition or subtraction of welded on weights would UNBALANCE the shaft. When one shaft is longer than the other a harmonic counter weight is often mounted on the longer one also. But I have never seen an axle shaft that had been re-balanced from the original factory weights or had a problem with an out of balance FWD drive shaft other than one that was damaged.
Which shaft, exactly, are you talking about? Front axle? Front-to-rear driveshaft? Rear axle?
Well, now I’ve seen everything.
A scam if I’ve ever seen one.
Don’t forget to get your muffler bearings checked also .
I remember an old shade tree mechanic who would use hose clamps to attach weights to drive shafts experimenting on the weight and location until he had eliminated an out of balance problem then welding the weight in place. As dumb as that sounds his technique was quite successful and considerably faster than the time spent trying to demonstrate and sell the equipment to SCIENTIFICALLY correct an out of balance.
I’ve never heard of strobe light balancing a driveshaft but I guess it’s possible. Many years ago some garages used a strobe light tire balancer. I’ve used one a couple of times and hated it. Very awkward to use. The driveshaft variant should be manageable; assuming it works as advertised.
It would seem to me that the pinion bearing and tailshaft bushing must be in very good shape to operate correctly.
Many years ago before a trip to Sturgis, SD a friend of mine crashed his bike badly. It was a mangled mess but we somehow got it moving again although it wasn’t pretty.
We noticed in Rapid City that the rear tire was wearing a bit lopsided due to tire balance. We taped a rock on the opposing side spokes with electrical tape and fixed it right up.