Single Piece Driveshaft

Ogden Dan

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With all the discussions going on potentially related to the two-piece driveshaft design, has anyone had a single piece drive shaft made for their truck? If so, can you share the details?

Thanks,

Dan
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SOHK_Alumni

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With all the discussions going on potentially related to the two-piece driveshaft design, has anyone had a single piece drive shaft made for their truck? If so, can you share the details?

Thanks,

Dan
Nearly took this path. Mostly for the lower cost, I thought I'd try having my OEM shaft re-worked to "correctly" align the u-joints and shed the crazy cross balance weights.

At least for me, it was $130 very well spent.

The driveshaft guys I was working with were looking at a 5" aluminum at a profoundly higher cost.
 

P. A. Schilke

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Nearly took this path. Mostly for the lower cost, I thought I'd try having my OEM shaft re-worked to "correctly" align the u-joints and shed the crazy cross balance weights.

At least for me, it was $130 very well spent.

The driveshaft guys I was working with were looking at a 5" aluminum at a profoundly higher cost.
Hi Win,

5" diameter driveshaft sounds about right for the length to get the critical speed of the driveline out of the driving range...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
 
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Ogden Dan

Ogden Dan

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Hi Win,

5" diameter driveshaft sounds about right for the length to get the critical speed of the driveline out of the driving range...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
hmmmm. I think we'd be hard pressed to get a 5" diameter driveshaft to clear the center bearing crossmember.
 

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Nearly took this path. Mostly for the lower cost, I thought I'd try having my OEM shaft re-worked to "correctly" align the u-joints and shed the crazy cross balance weights.

At least for me, it was $130 very well spent.

The driveshaft guys I was working with were looking at a 5" aluminum at a profoundly higher cost.

What all did they do and what were the results? I have been wanting to take mine by a driveshaft shop to be looked at, but just have not had the time off to do so.
 


SOHK_Alumni

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Hi Win,

5" diameter driveshaft sounds about right for the length to get the critical speed of the driveline out of the driving range...

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
Yep, they first thought smaller then all but fell over when they realize just how compact the transmission is and correspondingly long the shaft is.

What all did they do and what were the results? I have been wanting to take mine by a driveshaft shop to be looked at, but just have not had the time off to do so.
They separated the front splines from the rear shaft and shaved off the half dozen or so weights. Re-welded the splines to align the three u-joints then re-balanced with a whopping total of 2 weights.

From new, my RWD had a bad shake at 45 mph and a higher frequency tremble at freeway speeds. After the re-work,the shake is gone and the tremble is imperceptible. Had already tried a road force tire balance and alignment so the $130 was an easy thing to try.
 
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Ogden Dan

Ogden Dan

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What all did they do and what were the results? I have been wanting to take mine by a driveshaft shop to be looked at, but just have not had the time off to do so.
Yep, they first thought smaller then all but fell over when they realize just how compact the transmission is and correspondingly long the shaft is.

They separated the front splines from the rear shaft and shaved off the half dozen or so weights. Re-welded the splines to align the three u-joints then re-balanced with a whopping total of 2 weights.

From new, my RWD had a bad shake at 45 mph and a higher frequency tremble at freeway speeds. After the re-work,the shake is gone and the tremble is imperceptible. Had already tried a road force tire balance and alignment so the $130 was an easy thing to try.
Did they by any chance indicate what the balance was as received from you before they did any of the rework?
 

P. A. Schilke

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hmmmm. I think we'd be hard pressed to get a 5" diameter driveshaft to clear the center bearing crossmember.
Hi Dan,

Yep...that was a problem with the Ford Ranger Edge. I knew it when the idea was proposed to give folks a Ranger that had the stance of a 4x4 but was only a 4x2. The 4x4 frame was torsion bar front suspension and the No. 4 crossmember was use to hang the transfer case. The drafting analysis was the 4x2 driveshaft would impact the crossmember, so I told my engineer I assigned to the program to put a 4x2 powertrain in a 4x4 Ranger. Then we clayed the No 4 crossmember and drilled the rear shocks to drain the oil out of the shocks We did this over night. Then the next morning the engineer headed to the test track to see if he could get stikethrougn of the driveshaft to the crossmember. I required he check out a helmet before the testing, just in case. Using the Dearborn Proving Grounds road surfaces, he returned, white as a sheet from the testing. The undamped rear suspension was quite a ride. The clay impact showed the worse case was a ÂĽ" clearance...Not to Ford specs, so I presented this data and there was a design change in the crossmember flange to increase to the Ford spec for clearance between a rotating member and a static component and thus the Ranger Edge was born....

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
 
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Ogden Dan

Ogden Dan

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Hi Dan,

Yep...that was a problem with the Ford Ranger Edge. I knew it when the idea was proposed to give folks a Ranger that had the stance of a 4x4 but was only a 4x2. The 4x4 frame was torsion bar front suspension and the No. 4 crossmember was use to hang the transfer case. The drafting analysis was the 4x2 driveshaft would impact the crossmember, so I told my engineer I assigned to the program to put a 4x2 powertrain in a 4x4 Ranger. Then we clayed the No 4 crossmember and drilled the rear shocks to drain the oil out of the shocks We did this over night. Then the next morning the engineer headed to the test track to see if he could get stikethrougn of the driveshaft to the crossmember. I required he check out a helmet before the testing, just in case. Using the Dearborn Proving Grounds road surfaces, he returned, white as a sheet from the testing. The undamped rear suspension was quite a ride. The clay impact showed the worse case was a ÂĽ" clearance...Not to Ford specs, so I presented this data and there was a design change in the crossmember flange to increase to the Ford spec for clearance between a rotating member and a static component and thus the Ranger Edge was born....

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
Hi Phil,

Kind of a bummer about the single piece drive shaft idea. I am at wits end with this high-speed vibration. Wheels have been balanced several times and I'm not sure where to put my focus other than the drive shaft. The driveline guy at the dealership was talking about the drive shaft as well but he said Ford won't let them do that because it is not suspect at this time.

Dan
 

P. A. Schilke

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Hi Phil,

Kind of a bummer about the single piece drive shaft idea. I am at wits end with this high-speed vibration. Wheels have been balanced several times and I'm not sure where to put my focus other than the drive shaft. The driveline guy at the dealership was talking about the drive shaft as well but he said Ford won't let them do that because it is not suspect at this time.

Dan
Hi Dan,

Open a complaint with Ford Customer Care. Dealer is feeding you crap as the driveshaft is in the loop for your complaint. I continued to be disappointed by dealer statements that are not correct. I wish dealers were under more direct control of Ford than they are... So many are just flat awful!

Mine goes in to get TSB service on Monday and the Dealer made me pay hell to get it scheduled as I did not buy my Ranger from them. Sucks!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
 
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Ogden Dan

Ogden Dan

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Hi Dan,

Open a complaint with Ford Customer Care. Dealer is feeding you crap as the driveshaft is in the loop for your complaint. I continued to be disappointed by dealer statements that are not correct. I wish dealers were under more direct control of Ford than they are... So many are just flat awful!

Mine goes in to get TSB service on Monday and the Dealer made me pay hell to get it scheduled as I did not buy my Ranger from them. Sucks!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
Phil,
I'm getting a pretty healthy vibration at 85 mph so decided to do a little experiment.
My stock tire size is 265/60/18, so if my math is correct, my wheels are turning 15.6 revolutions per second (assuming 95.88 in circumference) at that speed.
At 85 mph, my phone vibration tool was picking up the highest vibration acceleration at 15.85 Hz.
That vibration frequency seems to align somewhat with the rotational frequency of the wheels. Would that imply a wheel/tire imbalance issue or am I way oversimplifying this?

I also repeated at 55 mph as I get a slight vibration at that speed as well. My calculated wheel rotations at that speed is 10.09 rev/sec and my phone picks up a vibration at about 10.2 Hz.
 
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P. A. Schilke

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Phil,
I'm getting a pretty healthy vibration at 85 mph so decided to do a little experiment.
My stock tire size is 265/60/18, so if my math is correct, my wheels are turning 15.6 revolutions per second (assuming 95.88 in circumference) at that speed.
At 85 mph, my phone vibration tool was picking up the highest vibration acceleration at 15.85 Hz.
That vibration frequency seems to align somewhat with the rotational frequency of the wheels. Would that imply a wheel/tire imbalance issue or am I way oversimplifying this?

I also repeated at 55 mph as I get a slight vibration at that speed as well. My calculated wheel rotations at that speed is 10.09 rev/sec and my phone picks up a vibration at about 10.2 Hz.
Hi Dan,

It does indeed point to first order tire rotation as a possible cause of your vibration. Kudos for providing a frequency in your diagnostic efforts.... Let us know if you do rebalance your tires to resolve this vibration.

What app are you using? it might be a great tool for other diagnostics?

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co.. Retired
 
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Ogden Dan

Ogden Dan

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Hi Dan,

It does indeed point to first order tire rotation as a possible cause of your vibration. Kudos for providing a frequency in your diagnostic efforts.... Let us know if you do rebalance your tires to resolve this vibration.

What app are you using? it might be a great tool for other diagnostics?

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co.. Retired
Phil,
I'm using an app called myFrequency. It's on the Google Play store $9.95

Dan
 

P. A. Schilke

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Phil,
I'm using an app called myFrequency. It's on the Google Play store $9.95

Dan
Hi Dan,

Thanks!

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired
 

myothercarizahearse

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Once I had bought a set of brand new tires(cheapos) and had the same problem. The tires were balanced by 2 different shops. turned out it was 1 tire had a belt that was little off and caused the vibration. There was no visible bulge on the tire. long story short, you get what you pay for. Since then I've used nothing but Cooper tires until the Michelins on the Ranger.
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