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2005 GTO Driveshaft

35K views 21 replies 15 participants last post by  68OldGoat 
#1 ·
My son broke the drive shaft in his 2005 GTO right behind the front yoke. His has the 6.0 L and 6 speed. The drive shaft in the car is a 1 piece aluminum shaft. I found a used one and it is a two piece. I noticed the shop manual shows a 2 piece. We bought the car used. Is this an after market driveshaft or did GM make 2 versions.
Any help here would be appreciated. May in the end get a new 1 piece steel unit made.
 
#4 ·
:eek:Wow I'm surprised he managed to snap a 1 piece driveshaft!! It must have been poorly made. Was it on the weld? Is the car modded besides the driveshaft? The stock GTO's came with two piece driveshafts that not all that great themselves, if your son has this car modded with some serous horsepower I would put the coin into another one piece and or a driveshaft loop.
 
#5 ·
The aluminum piece was built for low mass, but if you have some sticky tires, you will snap one. The 2 piece is heavy but very strong. The length of the one piece does lend itself to twisting some and are more critical to be perfectly balanced, which it should have been. Maybe a balance weight fell off and helped with the premature demise.

Just my 2 cents worth

Russ
 
#6 ·
Do you know how much force it would take to twist a drive shaft whether it's a one piece or two? Drive shafts are built based on hp/tq rating, speed, rpm, vehicle weight, etc. not just the mass of the vehicle. And even though our stock drive shafts may seem more heftier than an aluminum one it is more proned to failure because of the rubber donuts and the carrier bearing. But with all things mechanical they do fail at some point and his did. Why? Who knows.
 
#9 ·
Well, you are right about the one piece vs two piece shafts. Usually it is the u-joint that fails first with either one, so a damaged shaft is the main cause for failure or a thrown balance weight. But not all aftermarket shafts are better quality, so hopefully he will check out the company and see what kind of hp/tq figures it should handle before buying.

Russ
 
#11 ·
whatever drive shaft you use, one or two piece, they are strong enough in most cases. what kills a drive shaft (i know:)) is wheel hop. the snapping action of it will break one quickly. lots of people have had high horsepower, low ET cars with the stock shaft. i have a Drive Shaft Shop one piece (after learning my leason about wheel hop) and it's "OK". i had to have it rebalanced at a local drive line shop and it's much better than new now. Hendricks Engineering makes the best one. it's a two piece that has built up shafts and center carrier. for most people tho i'd say find a used stock shaft and fix the wheel hop. they're good enough.
 
#14 ·
Driveshaft ....



I think you are right ... the two piece drive shaft is about $1,000 ... and it really does not handle that much HP.

Hard to believe that GM would leave a weak drive shaft in a car they know people are going to modify. So it could be ... wheel hop ... or just urban legand regarding the strengh or lack of strengh of the OEM driveshaft?
Might be just hipe by BMR .. DriveShaft Shop ... to scare some $$$ out of your pocket ...

Also like you say .. the straight driveshafts have a tendency to vibrate. So you are screwing up your ride comfort for the sake of buying an aftermarket part that might only come in handy if your car's front end jumps up four feet in the air at the drag strip ... but it never hurts to ask ... :D
 
#19 ·
they should have realized the two piece drive shafts weren't a good idea when they started putting them in the camaros when they redesigned the car for 1998 the first six months of prodduction they ued a 2 piece then switched back to a single when they came back with problems
 
#20 ·
Just ordered one from the www.driveshaftshop.com

1 piece driveshaft. I saw someone was talking about a lower hp driveshaft and the driveshaft shop has a 550 hp one for $629.99. I bought the 1000hp one though its only $679.99 and a direct fit besides grinding a bolt down a little for clearance. :cheers
 
#22 ·
:agree​
svede1212 has the right answer IMHO. Here is a quote from one of the vendors offering a 2 piece rated @ 900HP for under $1,000.

"After offering single piece shafts for some time, we have come to realization that some of the GTO's have harmonic vibration issues, which the 2-piece shaft with hanger bearings will completely eliminate this problem. This shaft is 3" chromoly front and back and also features our strong 1350 joints. Don't forget, The shaft also comes equipped with your choice of our Billet 4340 Rear Pinion Flange Mount or the Billet Aluminum Plate, so you no longer have the go into the rear differential."
 
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