[DeTomaso] Drive (half) Shaft Balancing

[Larry Weston]

Before you invest in having your driveshafts balanced check for excessive spline wear. 
Clamp the big end securely in a vise, position the splines at the usual operating extension and give the other end a shake. If there's much slop in the splines at all, it's not worth having them rebalanced, mostly because it can't be done. 
The center of the shaft will "throw" out to the limit of the slop, and since it won't always do it at exactly the same spot your balancing efforts will be wasted.
A good driveline shop will check this right up front and tell you, a bad one will try to balance them, weld ugly weights all over the shafts, declare they can't be properly balanced and take your money anyway.
BTW, added weights can interfere with sphereball mount hdwe or the engine bay openings the shafts pass through at extremes of suspension travel.
I figured this out the hard way.
Larry.  
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