What we offers..

Universal Drive & Axle Inc. offers various services.         If your car has a vibration problem it might be the driveshaft. Let us re-balance your shaft on our high speed balancer.

Once a year you should have your flange axles inspected for cracks and damage in order to avoid costly failures.

Among the services offered by us, we have gear set-ups, narrowing housings, re-drilling axles and many more. We have all the specialized machinery to provide these services.

Drive shaft diagnosis

Drive shaft problems can result in noise or vibration from worn or rusted U-joints, a worn slipe yoke, or a bad center support bearing. Worn U-joints can cause squeaking or grinding sounds. 

Drive Shaft Balance 

Drive shaft are a possible source of vibration. In high gear, the drive shaft spins at engine rpm. If the shaft is bent or a universal joint is worn a vibration can occur. 

Drive Shaft Inspection

• Look for undercoating, missing balance weights, or obvious physical damage.
• Move the drive shaft up and down while watching U-joints for looseness.
• Look for a rusty appearance around U-joints cups.
• Moe the slipe yoke up and down against the extension housing bushing while looking for excessive movement.
• Check to see that the motor mount on the transmission crossmember is in good condition.

Balancing at actual running speeds has the distinct advantage of closer simulating real world running conditions. Most balancers run between 500 and 1000 RPM when balancing. They count on being able to decrease the unbalance tolerances to account for increased unbalance forces at higher RPM. This does not, however, take into account variations that can be introduced with increased speed. Driveshaft flex, variations in harmonics and operating angles can all greatly influence how a drivehshaft will operate at increased speed.

The precision load-balanced driveshaft greatly benefits racers by reducing radial force power required to turn an eccentric shaft and by improving transmission and rear-end life through a reduction in those harmful radial forces. This service is included in all Universal Drive & Axle Inc. custom made Drive Shafts. We can custom balance most other manufacturers shafts as well.

When to balance

Check the driveshaft tech page to verify that you are not approaching critical speed (Critical speed is the speed at which a spinning shaft will become unstable) or that there is somehing wrong in your set-up. Make sure that your u-joints are in good condition and that the transmission yoke is solid, with little or no play. You should never test for driveshaft vibration with the car in the air. When the car is in the air the suspension is not loaded, and this can introduce problems with shaft angle alignment. Without the car properly loaded there can also be issues with harmonics in the axles and wheels that are mis-leading when troubleshooting driveshaft problems.

Custom Drive Shaft Fabrication

Driveshafts repaired and built from scratch when necessary. Hanger bearings removed and installed. U-Joints and Yokes installed. High speed balancing done in house on state-of-the-art Spicer machines, the best in the industry.

Custom manufacturing of driveshafts to your needs and/or specifications (ideal for engine / transmission swaps, overdrive transmission conversions, eliminating high speed vibration, improving strength, lightening your vehicle and more)

We can make a custom driveshaft for virtually any vehicle and do it right (call us with your requirements)