Concerns when running an Aerostar Aluminum Driveshaft?

[Gearbanger 101]

I’ve got a rear aluminum driveshaft from an AWD ’96 Aerorstar on the way to replace my stock steel unit. I’m aware of the need for flange mixing and matching with the Mustang hardware at the pinion end, but what are you guys doing at the other end where the yolk slides into the tail shaft?

I ask, because the reason I’m replacing my steel unit is the rubber impregnated steel damper at the yolk end seems to have come apart (like most of them do) and is missing and the previous owner of the car didn’t replace it. As a result…I’ve got some pretty noticeable vibration at highway speed and I’m sure it’ll only get worse when I swap out my 2.73’s for a set of 3.73’s later this month.
My question is.....

For you guys that swapped out to the aluminum shaft, did you also transfer the damper over from the stock driveshaft as well, or is it no longer necessary with the aluminum shaft? I realize that the aluminum shaft shifts the harmonic resonance transfered through the engine up out of normal driving ranges and does a better job than the steel unit at controlling vibration....but is the driveshaft alone enough to keep them at bay?

I noticed that the Ford Racing unit doesn't have a damer on the end of it...but it's also a fair bit heavier built than the Aerostart shaft (3.5" vs 3.0") and I'm wondering if that should be taken into account?

Your thoughts?

 

[Gearbanger 101]

What….you’re telling me that with the plethora of know-it-all in this place, nobody has ever come across something like this?

 

[NIKwoaC]

Do you have pictures? I remember no such dampener on my steel drive shaft.

 

[Bullitt347]

I worked for a Ford dealership back in the day and we replaced a lot of those Aerostar driveshafts under warranty. I personally would not trust on of those as far as I could throw it. Technology has come a long way since, and what they made then in a word "sucks".

 

[Gearbanger 101]

Do you have pictures? I remember no such dampener on my steel drive shaft.

Don't have a picture of mine at the moment, but this is what I've found surfing the net....

AOD

View attachment 152453

T5

Notice the large, ruber impregnated steel ring at the yoke? Well mine is missing. Rubber rotted away and seems to have spun off. Very common. My last 5.0L had the same issue.

I worked for a Ford dealership back in the day and we replaced a lot of those Aerostar driveshafts under warranty. I personally would not trust on of those as far as I could throw it. Technology has come a long way since, and what they made then in a word "sucks".

Yeah....I remember a lot of the earlier ones went in with issues when I worked for Ford in the mid-90's too. The shaft I'm getting is from a '96. The '96-'97's apparently got an updated design and was what they replaced the earlier '93-'95 models with.

I see plenty of guys talk about having run them, so I'm not overly worried about breaking one. True, the 5.0L is a lot torquier than the 4.0L that was in the Aerostar...but the Mustang is also about a 1,500lb lighter verhicle by comparison....so it should put a lot less stress on the shaft and joints themselves.

 

[vristang]

I thought that damper was only used on 2.3 cars?

 

[David Pepiton]

I just picked up a aerostar driveshaft this morning and will be slapping it in friday evening. mine looks similar to the pic you have posted but time will tell if its messed up or not. I've got a long 3-4 mile stretch of road near my house that is nice and flat and only sees about 30 cars a day. I had my gen 1 slowmaro at 150mph down this road a few years ago and it did great. Ive only had my mustang to 120mph down this road so ill get it up to at least 80 maybe 90 to check for vibrations right now I feel a lot of vibrations around 50-70mph.

the slip yoke should get the 353 UJ from my understanding

 

[NIKwoaC]

Yea I definitely don't remember that on my steel driveshaft. I would say I'm 95% sure it had nothing there, it just tapered straight off the u-joint and went into the yoke.

 

[David Pepiton]

Ive been doing my homework and have come to a conclusion if you have a t5 you need a 353 for the slip yoke and a 369 for the diff side and for an auto they both use a 369. Ill post specs later im at work.

 

[David Pepiton]

Ok so here is what I have learned over the last 24 hours.

The T5 mustangs uses a 354 universal joint at the Yoke and AODs mustangs and the automatic 4wd Aerostar use a 369 universal joint at the yoke here are the specs for the UJs:


354
bearing A cup: 1.063
bearing A end to end: 3.620
bearing B cup: 1.063
bearing B end to end: 3.620

353
bearing A cup: 1.063
bearing A end to end: 3.220
bearing B cup: 1.063
bearing B end to end: 3.620

369
bearing A cup: 1.063
bearing A end to end: 3.220
bearing B cup: 1.063
bearing B end to end : 3.220
_______________________________________

so as you can see the cups are all the same but the length from end of the cup to end of cups are different you need a cup length of 3.220 for the Aerostar DS and depending on if you have an AOD or T5 you'll need the 3.220 or 3.620 length bearings.


I got this info from the federal mogul website

top u joint is a 353 and the bottom is a 369

 

[Maryland Stang]

The strength of the stock Mustang U joints is seriously in question to me. I've seen them snapped clean off and I don't want that to happen to me. As a result, I've yet to give my Mustang any real traction.

 

[David Pepiton]

i know federal mogul makes a stranger u joint they are available from Oreillys the part #'s are 270 and 280

 

[Maryland Stang]

I was actually looking at these driveshaft parts. They seem like they are actually built to put up with abuse. This driveshaft is rated to 500 HP. I would get the matching pinion yolk. All told it would be about $400 give or take.

http://www.dennysdriveshaft.com/p1290_1310_series_hd_3_inch_driveshaft.html

 

[Gearbanger 101]

Ok so here is what I have learned over the last 24 hours.

The T5 mustangs uses a 354 universal joint at the Yoke and AODs mustangs and the automatic 4wd Aerostar use a 369 universal joint at the yoke here are the specs for the UJs:


354
bearing A cup: 1.063
bearing A end to end: 3.620
bearing B cup: 1.063
bearing B end to end: 3.620

353
bearing A cup: 1.063
bearing A end to end: 3.220
bearing B cup: 1.063
bearing B end to end: 3.620

369
bearing A cup: 1.063
bearing A end to end: 3.220
bearing B cup: 1.063
bearing B end to end : 3.220
_______________________________________

so as you can see the cups are all the same but the length from end of the cup to end of cups are different you need a cup length of 3.220 for the Aerostar DS and depending on if you have an AOD or T5 you'll need the 3.220 or 3.620 length bearings.


I got this info from the federal mogul website

top u joint is a 354 and the bottom is a 369

Something is screwy here. You state that the top U-Joint is a 354, which according to your description above has even-length ends at both A&B.

....yet the top U-joint clearly shows two different length sides at A&B, that seem to match the dimensions of the 353 bearing in your description above. So which is it?

 

[David Pepiton]

Sorry posted the wrong picture in the pic is a 353 on top and 369 on bottom I will fix it

 

[Gearbanger 101]

That makes more sense. Gotta order my joints tomorrow and didn't want to end up with the wrong ones.

On a side note....although the '96-'97 yoke has the same 27T spline as the Mustang yoke, the yoke shaft length itself is about 1 1/2-2" shorter than the Mustangs. It may still slide in, but you're eliminating a lot of spline area from the equasion using the Aerostar one....so I just swapped them over. The Aerostar shaft had a damper on the yoke as well.

Also....after pulling my stock shaft, I see that there actually was no rubber balancer on it. Which leads me to believe that they were only located on the AOD and as vristang stated, 4-cylinder specific. Since my last Mustang was previously an AOD, it would make sense. It was shot, so I replaced it with one I bought from a wrecker. They must have sold a 4-cylinder driveshaft as a replacement?

Glad that's cleared up.

 

[Gearbanger 101]

Just an update....

Went with the 353 joints at both ends. Had to transfer the Mustang yolk and flange over to the Aerostar drive shaft.

Works great....cut the shifter vibration down considerably. Car seems a little spunkier in the lower regions. Keep in mind, I also converted to an electric fan at the same time, which probably contributed to the added spunk. It still vibrates under hard acceleration, but I suspect that's the stock control arms and their weak/worn out bushings causing the pinion to distort, not anything to do with the driveshaft.

All in all, I've got about $140 into it. Less than half of what it would have cost me for the FRPP shaft.

 

[David Pepiton]

my DS swap was like $95 since i work for a auto parts company and got the shaft for $65

 

[N8Dogg98]

When I was fifteen, I used to steal my parents '91 AWD Aerostar w/ the 4.0 V-6 all the time. One night, I thought it would be a good idea to rev it up and do a neutral drop into drive while stopped. All I heard was a loud "clunk"

My friends and I then went and stole another friends dads Jeep Wagoneer and we proceeded to push the Aerostar back to my parents house. I denied the incident to them, and I still feel bad about it.... the service tech who repaired it said he'd never seen anything like it. The shaft within the transfer case was distorted and broken

 

[Rick 91GT]

lol...Nate, Opps...

Brian, yes the AOD cars had the damper, never seen one stock on a manual car.

Maryland Stang, The Driveshaft Shop has some nice driveshafts that will take a lot of power, pricing is decent as well I get them a good bit below what most retail at. Your right the issue is the flange, swapping to a pinion style yoke in the rear is a must in any high hp car, I do it more lately. Strange makes them as well....

Here's a quote from The Driveshaft Shop I always liked "The Ford Motorsport Shaft is inexpensive but is also made from Extruded tube. Extruded Aluminum tube is inexpensive and is made by using something like a play-doh factory" Personally weve pushed the Ford Racing shafts to 900hp with no issues, although were using a pinion yoke, car 60ft's in the 1.4 range.