Drive shaft yoke balancer, 98 w/5sp

[fireguy12117]

I finally figured out the noise and vibration that i've been searching for. it seems as though i am of the lucky few to have the transmission output shaft yoke balancer come apart at the rubber that holds the 2 pieces together.

on a quick search i see two solutions. drop the shaft and yank the loose ring off, drive it till the wheels fall off...

or get a new output yoke and have the whole thing rebalanced, which sounds like more money than i want to spend.

the catch is that i do feel a vibration in the drive line as a result of the balancer coming apart.

What is the smart thing to do here? get it fixed correctly at a shop that does this kind of work, or perhaps press off the sleeve that still on the yoke and see what happens?

 

[AgPete139]

Dude, I would buy an entire new driveshaft at a junkyard for $75-$100. Direct bolt in, and new pieces.

 

[fireguy12117]

my experience has been that the drive shaft would not come with the trans output yoke. that would be a separate item.

i'm more interested in getting the output yoke repaired, if the yoke and the DS are matched at the factory, that would be good information to have.

 

[fireguy12117]

Does anyone know the 'correct' name for this thing?

Calling around to junk yards and repair shops, no one knows what i'm talking about.

I will be hitting the u-pick yard this weekend, hope i get lucky.

 

[fireguy12117]

I guess i got a little lucky.

Found a Gen 2 std cab stick in the yard and it looked like it had what i needed so i grabbed the shaft and never looked back.

Turns out the shaft was a few inches to short and the spacing of the u-joint ears on the yoke were different so i had to swap u-joints around. also the yoke itself was perhaps an inch shorter. i didn't think it would be a problem since the splines seemed like they'd have enough contact.

All in all, i got the parts swapped and the truck seems to shift better and the vibration seems to be all but gone.

I managed to walk out wit 2 drive shafts and a set of locking hubs for $35 so ill take my lumps with having to swap things around since it was probably a few hundred dollars in parts i managed to practically walk out with!