Camaro u joint caps/clips

[Hood]

I believe he has the internal snap rings.
You really can't measure the run out at the caps though. There is enough play in the slip yoke that measuring on the car will be inconsistent anyway and if you are only seeing a couple tenths then my bet is that it isn't at the end of the shaft. You should be measuring near the center of the driveshaft to check for run out. Also check the run out on the rear wheels while mounted on the car. Are they balanced properly as well? Check for flat spots on the tires too.

[Pranav]

Pranav,
Your snap rings aren't even there anymore... This is about 5 minutes of track time before you jettison the caps again. You need to pull the driveshaft back out and press the caps back on. Push them over further to one side, get that clip seated, and then turn it over and tap everything back the other direction to seat the other clip. A few swift smacks with a 2lb deadblow should set the final clip.

We wouldn't want the caps to come lose on the front straight and fly into the crowd and kill any babies, especially TWS...
(lets see who gets that "old" joke)...

As Gary said, the snap rings are internal, and all 8 of them are in there. The caps are pressed in as far as they can go...

[Pranav]

I believe he has the internal snap rings.
You really can't measure the run out at the caps though. There is enough play in the slip yoke that measuring on the car will be inconsistent anyway and if you are only seeing a couple tenths then my bet is that it isn't at the end of the shaft. You should be measuring near the center of the driveshaft to check for run out. Also check the run out on the rear wheels while mounted on the car. Are they balanced properly as well? Check for flat spots on the tires too.

I had my crappy practice tires on, I can try rotate them, I am considering going back to the dyno to recheck after I get the driveshaft sorted out Monday.

All I can say is I did pull and reset each of the three different measurement points and got repeatable results.

I did not get into checking runout on the shaft body itself, I'll get in there and measure that before I pull it, thanks for the tip!

[AI#97]

Pranav,
Your snap rings aren't even there anymore... This is about 5 minutes of track time before you jettison the caps again. You need to pull the driveshaft back out and press the caps back on. Push them over further to one side, get that clip seated, and then turn it over and tap everything back the other direction to seat the other clip. A few swift smacks with a 2lb deadblow should set the final clip.

We wouldn't want the caps to come lose on the front straight and fly into the crowd and kill any babies, especially TWS...
(lets see who gets that "old" joke)...

Not a joke....considering I have hit parts that fell off of your car! Lol!!!

[marshall_mosty]

Not a joke....considering I have hit parts that fell off of your car! Lol!!!

Matt,
To my knowledge, the only part I have lost off my car in 10 years of racingwas half an exhaust at TWS last September and it was never recovered.

[Pranav]

Checked runout at the middle and ends of the shaft, yeah it was bad if not worse than what I was measuring at the u joint caps. Once I had the driveshaft out, I checked runout on both the output shaft and the rear end yoke and was getting minimal runout that was within bounds of me wiggling each part.

I'll ask the shop tomorrow to throw the shaft as-is on the balancer before servicing it to confirm its just the shaft. Not ruling out potential trans tailhousing bushing and output shaft issues just yet, but feel confident the whole issue was tied to misalignment of the new u joints.

[AI#97]

Matt,
To my knowledge, the only part I have lost off my car in 10 years of racingwas half an exhaust at TWS last September and it was never recovered.

. Same thing at cresson 2006 . cheesed my splitter... Believe it was in the braking zone into rattlesnake. Wasn't half the exhaust but large enough to chunk the leading edge. Just busting your chops.

[Hood]

As Gary said, the snap rings are internal, and all 8 of them are in there. The caps are pressed in as far as they can go...

Ummm...I see a problem. The caps cannot be pressed in so that they bottom out. They need to be backed out against the snap rings or you will have an early failure. To do this, set the yoke on an open vise so that the ears are supported and, using a soft face deadblow hammer strike the opposite flange to seat the bottom cap into the snap ring. Flip it over and repeat. Do the same for the other two caps. The yoke should have absolutely no resistance when moving it back and forth.

[Pranav]

Yeah, if I backed out the two on the transmission yoke, the clips wouldn't go in at all. Something definitely wasn't right, and then with the vibration I threw in the towel.

Houston drive train confirmed it all wasn't right and re-did them with good quality Spicer joints before doing a balance job. Told me to return the Chinese precision/federal crap and get my money back. They also told me to stick with the clips that came with the Spicer joints as the two full circle snap rings I used on the rear were too thin and probably adding to the misalignment...

[marshall_mosty]

Glad you got it resolved. I had a custom driveshaft made a few years back when I did my wheelbase shift and it's been money well spent since they used real nice U-joints going back together.