Well, the drive shaft trials did not go according to plan. My methodology took me to trialing only 1 shaft at a time, with the other removed. So i would trial "A" in the front with no rear shaft, then "A" in the back etc..
I only had some slight vibes/noise, but i believe a lot of that is feedback from the engine via the new beefier Brown Dog engine mounts.
Anyway, i fitted the new Olivers shaft in the front and went for a drive. There was a heap of grinding, noise and vibration. The car felt under powered and the whole experience was negative. It was not so bad in the rear.
Time to investigate. The vibes were so great that the rubber boot came loose from the CV..
I noticed that the shaft could not handle much articulation. In fact, even though the CV part number is the same, it could only articulate about 50% of the OEM ones.. Max angle was about 20*
I could only get a 0.2mm feeler gauge in between the CV, so i am wondering if that while driving it touches and causes the vibes.... This also limits the articulation to 20*. I believe my shaft is running at that angle.
While the shaft looks the business, i am not sure while it has caused so many vibes, power loss and grinding noises. The angle here does not look great, but the transfer case pinion points up so the angle to the diff pinion is quite a lot. I calculated about 20* which is about the same as the max articulation of the shaft without binding.
I have emailed Olivers for a solution. Not sure how to refit the boot on the ball, but it looks like the internal ball section is too big for the outer section, which causes binding. They say it is fully speed balanced, and has new weights on it, but who knows yet what the problem is.
Cheers,