Vehicle Driveshaft, check and balance on a lathe any advice?

GoceKU

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I live in a country where most of the vehicles are FWD and there are no driveshaft shops. I'm in the middle of refurbishing the rear axle on a small 4x4 ( Little Niva) and when the rear driveshaft is out i want to check if, there is lots of vibrations when driving it, i do own a decent size lathe for holding the driveshaft at the chuck i can get a diff flange and hold it that way, but at the tailstock i'll have to think of something. The driveshaft is one piece with a slip joint and normal style u joints i'll put a picture down. Any advice on how to mount it check it is much appreciated.
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I would first remove the slip and chuck the splines in the lathe and check for runout at the far end of the tube. I have done quite a lot of driveshaft work, and never had one come back with vibration problems.
 
I agree with Benmychree. Give it a really careful going over. Splines for looseness, u-joints for wear, and EVERYTHING for dings, bends, and other subtle damage. I would also clean all the crud off of it, which may be enough to put it out of balance. If everything is as clean as new, as tight as new, and as straight as new, it should work like new.
 
My experience has been 95% of driveshaft vibrations were caused by worn u-joints. Other 5% were worn splines in the slip joint (and most of those were in mudders where grit had made it past the seal). Pull the slip joint apart and the end of the spline will be center drilled to mount to your tailstock.
 
Problems are found most often in off road vehicles that have high u-joint angles and are more often exposed to damaging rocks and other hazards. However, it can also happen on-road by driving over junk on the road. Lack of proper maintenance is also often an issue, as posted above by RobertB. When restoring a vehicle as old as the one you are working on, usage and time are the worst enemies. If not damaged, the main drive shaft components are usually able to be fully restored to good condition pretty easily. Drive line shops test the balance of shafts and repair as necessary. Then a fresh paint job, and off you go...
 
Thank you all for the advance, i've also been doing more research the niva's driveshafts, as things did not line up. i went and talk to people that use them daly and found out that from the factories the old niva's came with two types of driveshafts standard with 23,88mm u joints and off road driveshafts with 28mm u joints and thicker shaft. After few measurements my niva has the off road one front and rear, i also have an identical in my spares (the blue one) i also noticed the splines are bigger than the standard ones now i'm planning to spin it up and see if it's good i'll just grease it and paint it, if i feel any vibration i'll take both u joints apart and check for damage.
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