I replaced the POJ 2 piece steel drive shaft and carrier bearing assembly yesterday with a new 1 piece aluminum shaft like the new trucks have. My 2006 QC LWB truck (auto) has 102,000 miles on it, mostly towing my boat. Purchased the aluminum drive shaft from my local dealer, $525 out the door. Parts guy had to inform me that I shouldn't be replacing the drive shaft for low speed stutter...yeah right! Money well spent!

Symptoms were somewhat harsh low speed stutter and a "wah wah wah" rhythmic sound/vibration at higher speeds, especially when I had some pressure on the pedal and drive train when towing. Noticed the sound/vibration starting to get worse this spring. It wasn't terrible, but you could feel it. My u-joints looked ok, but I felt the carrier bearing had a fair amount of play in it, even though the rubber looked ok. So at a minimum I needed a new carrier bearing, and would need new u-joints too at some point.

I read a bunch of posts here on the site about guys replacing the POJ 2 piece shaft with 1 piece aluminum and decided to try one. WOW is all I can say...I get rid of vibrations I didn't even know I had. Super smooth takeoffs now.

It took me about 30 mins to remove the old shaft and carrier bearing hanger assembly and install the new aluminum with the help of my buddy. Easy...

 

You guys are killing me,,,I want one !

 

Man, that's not a bad price...

 

Why don't they make one to fit behind the nv5600 yet?

 

They never will as none of the newer trucks use a shaft that has the lenght you need. I bought the 52123162aa and had the local driveline shop shorten it . Cost $100.00 to cut about 2.5 inches off. Cut the shudder when backing up my horse trailer by 95%. Very happy.

 

Thats the whole reason for me not purchasing one. I don't wanna pay that kind of price and then pay more to lose some of what I just paid for. I'm pretty sure that if they did make one they'd sell the crap out of 'em .

 

I thought about using the left over piece to make inserts for my ear lobes.

 

It solved all my vibes, and won't rust, looks "purty" too.

 

Nice work!!! Been thinking of doing exactly that for some time, even asked the dealer for a replacement and they had no idea! Have you got a part number still kicking around by any chance so i can just ask him to look up??
Thanks, and Cheers!

 

The alloy drive shaft has many problems too. Something as simple as a shingle falling between the bed and the cab can take it out. A tar shingle was riding on the shaft and cut right through it like a pipe cutter. It split on the highway and about caused a mess. Was quoted $600 A fabbed steel shaft was installed with no vibration.

Others have bent them easily by hitting or throwing stuff up into it.

Some have twisted them.

 

I have a 04.5 and I thought they were NV5600's. I have a one piece from a 08, it works great. I thought it looked tight but it works fine and I run alot of wash board logging roads with no crashing in the t-cass.

 

labreck would you happen to have measurements for the shaft so I can compare?

 

I ordered mine thru

http://www.doghousediesel.com/catalog/i259.html

super fast shipping, great guy to deal with.

 

Yeah I would love a 1 piece driveshaft

 

That is what I would do, take your two-piece the the D-shaft shop along with the measurments and hav them make one for you. It will be a lot cheaper, I have done it a number of times for my rock crawler. I used to run a one-piece on it, the shaft was about five and a half feet long, never cost me over $150.00 to have it made using my flanges and yokes.