Hi, I recently bought a shaft from Shaftmasters and a bushing kit (Energy Suspension Hyper-Flex Master Kit from CPZ). After install, I noticed a grinding noise coming from the rear diff. The noise was more audible on deceleration and the lower the gear, the louder the sound. 1st gear taken to 6000rpm and then on lift off, it resonated on the cabin really really loud. Without a real clue of why this was happening, we installed back the old shaft. The noise was gone. Apparently this new shaft puts some sort of stress on the diff causing this. After contacting David from Shaftmasters, we confirmed the measurements and apparently everything is fine with the shaft. He told me that I would have to remove the dust shields: "Also, does your transmission have a "dust shield" on the back of it? If so, you may have to remove it or "trim it back" so the trans yoke ears will clear." There is no way the transmission will touch the dust shields. There are no markings whatsoever on them (of contact) and I don't think removing them would be a good idea. What you guys make of this? Anyone had similar issues? How were they solved? At the moment I'm at a dead end. If there is no solution for this I'll try to get a refund but that is like a last resort for me. Besides the tremendous amount of time wasted, there is the small matter of posting expenses... And in the end, I'll be stuck with the same shaft I was trying to replace... Thanks for your inputs guys. Best regards, Vítor
I havn't had my Shaftmasters shaft fitted yet but havn't heard of any noises on 300zxclub.. Try pm a couple of the guys in the review??
I wouldn't worry too much. People in general are very happy with them and it seams that pretty much nobody ever heard of such problems. Maybe I was unluky or maybe there is something wrong with my car... It doesn't take much to have a wining diff...
you may find that it is simply because there is less rotating weight with the aluminium shaft compared to the stock double shaft and because of that any noise problems in the diff may be amplified, i know this was the case when i changed from the stock driveshaft to a single piece steel shaft, i thought the diff was going to blow up with the extra noise, but it hasn't gotten any worse in 15,000 odd km
Sorry to stray away from your prob, but im soon gunna replace tailshaft with a lightened one-peice, so was wonderin what experience (positive/negative) yas have had with shaftmasters(lol) and if they are worth going to over UAS or getting one locally made. and aluminium > crome molly? Getting a quality, light-weight & problem free driveshaft made up seems to be hard to come by.. Cheerz :zlove:
sounds more to me. that the people that dropped your subframe , and did the bushings have accidentally either drained your diff fluid or the subframe/ diff mounts are loose... i have a single 1 pce driveshaft and it works flawlessly..... id be looking at the diff mounting points... or your driveshaft isnt ballanced properly. or has been damaged...
Just installed mine less then 30 minutes ago. Some negative, some positive. I'll do a write up probably later tonight, right now, a shower is order heh. MoulaZX
Just to make sure we are talking about the same thing. Does yours make a very loud grinding noise when in 1st gear decelerating from high revs? I find hard to imagine that everyone lives with this noise and it is ok... According to your theory, in my case it may be even worse because it is not a steel shaft. Alum in even lighter and probably has different sound resonance characteristics. Anyway, it is not ok for me. Regular driving I can even forget about it, but once you build more revs, it becomes really annoying. I was sold a aftermarket part that said nothing about this. If this can be a normal side effect, I would like to be warned before buying it.
my left axle makes a grinding noise all the time, when i last drove it, but i'll be sorting all that when the time comes, I think when it was in the panelbeaters they took it out and flogged it, I won't go into what happened in that little affair but needless to say it will never be going to a panel beaters again.
Ok, so I installed the old shaft back and the noise is gone, so it is confirmed that it has to do with the shaft. From the feedback I gathered so far from other forums and 300zx specialists, it has to do with the shaft lenght. It has to be preciselly the same lenght of the old shaft and mine appears to be a fraction longer. On the next visit to the work shop, we will takle this again. At that time, I'll come back to this thread for updates. For now, the old shaft is in its place and I'll enjoy the ride for a month or two before departing again...
First the positives. The Zed feels noticeably nimbler on take off, more so when accelerating from a standstill going up hill, takes less effort for it to get going. Revs also seem to climb faster in the lower gears when WOT'ing. Negatives. It wasn't exactly a picnic installing the shaft. For 2 hours it refused to slide into the gearbox. Turns out, at least with my shaft, when it the yoke was cut out of the lathe or however it was made, the tip of the yoke wasn't smooth enough and was making it extremely difficult to slide back into the gearbox. After about an hour of sanding down just the tip (top 3mm of the yoke), rounding the end to match the yoke on the original shaft, it finally managed to slide in. From that point it was fairly easy to finish up. The rear flange may need a little coaxing to mate up to the Diff but it wasn't difficult and took all of 2 minutes with a few light taps with a hammer, then its just a matter of putting the supplied shorter bolts back on followed by the exhaust and shes ready to go. As far as clearances go, when installed there were zero issues for me. Another thing to note, the shaft seems to have introduced some sort of very light vibration and grinding noise at the rear end of the car. I'm suspecting its the Diff. Seems that now with the one piece shaft, as blackheartedprofit mentioned, the shaft seems to amplify any problems with the Diff. I've already suspected my Diff bushes were dead and fairly certain my Diff may be stuffed (there is a fair bit of play when disconnected from the driveshaft). The next step at some point in the next few weeks will be to replace the Diff bushes to rule that out first. All in all, im fairly content with it, I cant quite complain about the noise as its kind of my fault not keeping up with diff / bushes maintenance, my only real annoyance was the issues when fitting it. Whether or not I would recommend it, depends on that person's Zed really. It definitely does make a positive difference but there are some issues, like I mentioned before, it seems to expose problems in the drive train that are otherwise 'invisible' with a two piece. As a side note, it did not remove the odd clunking noise I've had in the car since I bought it. It did however dampen it a fair bit, but I'm suspecting thats because I installed a aluminium driveshaft, the rotating mass is far lighter and hence the clunking through the drive train was muffled. MoulaZX
far out dude. no wonder it has vibrations.. since you sanded it. the shaft will be severely UNBALANCED.. and thats dangerous for something that will be rotating so fast... i bought my 1pce from z1 3 years ago now... its a direct fit. lighter than stock (steel) no vibrations and a peice of cake to install.... i would have sent yours back the instant you saw you couldnt fit it without "sanding" for a stationary part thats fine... for a rotating part.. HELL NO
I knew someone was going to say something along these lines lol. If you saw what exactly I had done you know there is no way it would have any bearing on balance. It was FAR too minuscule, it was only to break the absolute perfect cut that comes from a lathe, not rounding the sucker. Next time it comes out when I do my Diff bushes, i'll take some pictures. MoulaZX
