DSS 1 piece shaft for V6's!
 

Well the UPS man showed up on July 5th with a long box that weighed about 17 pounds. I'm sure by the title you can guess what was inside. :thumbup: That's right, the Drive Shaft Shop based out in North Carolina now makes 1 piece aluminum (and I am assuming carbon fiber) drive shafts for the 2010+ V6 Camaro. As far as I know I am the first to have one, if I am mistaken please chime in!

First and foremost I would like to say that the quality of construction on this drive shaft is second to none :bow: . It was WELL worth the wait for this piece! I dealt mostly with Frank over there at DSS through the whole process and his customer service is nothing shy of spectacular. He was always quick with his responses.

The install was actually very simple, I put the car up on a drive on lift (you can use a swing arm style lift if you want to be able to move the wheels/rotate the shaft without moving the car) and removed the center section of my exhaust (from the cats to the mufflers). At this point there is a heat shield that comes down just below where the carrier bearing is, two 10mm nuts hold it in place. 3 bolts on the transmission end and 3 bolts on the rear end side and 2 bolts on the carrier bearing and out comes the factory piece. I would like to thank GM for not making the carrier bearing such a PITA to remove like was in my 1999 Camaro. Anyhow back to the install.... All the necessary hardware was supplied by DSS. Basically the billet adapter came off the drive shaft and mounted to the transmission, after torquing the cv joint/ drive shaft is bolted up to the adapter using 6 or 8 bolts (can't remember off the top of my head) and torqued. Next line the bolt holes up with the rear end and extend the CV joint to mate the shaft to the diff and install the 3 supplied bolts and torque. Install exhaust (I left heat shield off just for personal preference) and you're done!

Now onto the money....performance. The factory drive shaft looks like it belongs in a Honda. between the carrier bearing and the hard rubber coupling adapters on each end, it gives lots of room for slop. The first thing I noticed was the car pulls harder and is a much smoother transfer of power. Obviously there is no real HP/TQ gains but I think these drop around 2 pounds compared to stock, but eliminating the carrier bearing and improving the coupling to the trans and rear diff are definitely a change for the better. Also it seems as if the dreaded dead spot in the LLT is mitigated (not eliminated but reduced) with this piece. I already have the RX ported throttle body which definitely helped but there was still a little bit of a dead zone, but adding this to the mix seems like it made that zone even smaller.

I appologize for not having pictures right now as I am at work and photobucket is blocked but when I get home tomorrow I will post up the pictures I have so far.

Thanks again to DSS and if anyone is thinking about making the switch, you won't be dissapointed. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

FINALLY!!!! i asked about this a while back when i first got my car. if you dont mind me asking how much did you pay for the drive shaft?

My friend who has a 4th gen keeps telling me to get one. I'm a terrible listener and have bad memory but that recommendation stuck. What steers me away is the install. So far I've been lucky to have done all my bolt ons myself with nothing going wrong [major anyway] and the fact that I don't have a lift is another. The second concern I have is how does that play into the rearend or w/e? I'm no car guru but I've learned that the A6's rear is far inferior to the M6 which shares the same kind as the SS. So if I were to ever find myself with a pile of money and nothing to spend it on, I figure a new rear would be nice. New rear = LSD and room for better gears [3.73s sound nice]. So basically does the drive shaft play into such an idea or can I upgrade my drive shaft and still be able to use it if I were to ever upgrade the rear?

Yeah I had asked a long time ago around when they introduced the SS products, but the wait is over! :w00t: :drinking: :thumbsup: :happyanim:

I put an aluminum one piece drive shaft out of a WS6 Trans Am in my 1999 Camaro and it was a world of difference! Of course the 4th Gen sixxers had steel 2 piece shafts so their was a lot more rotating mass reduction there. The install is actually very simple. I enlisted my wife's help and was done in about 2 hours, but was not in any hurry. The M6 rear is better in that it is a posi-trac (limited slip) as far as being able to reuse the drive shaft I would assume you would be able to as length shouldn't change. Maybe (and just a maybe I'm not sure, it'd be a better question for the DSS) you would need to change the coupler to the rear diff.

Sounds doable. So it sounds like a new rear won't require replacing the driveshaft. Though as you said I'll ask the Driveshaft Shop soon.

I have been thinking of getting one for a long time too but can't really afford it lol. I think it will def reduce the power loss to the wheels since it is 1-piece as opposed to 2

it took us a bit to get to it, but yes we have 6cly shafts. we have made one in aluminum and one n Carbon and they seem to working great so we will put them on the site when we get a chance. if your interested in one send me a PM for more info

Is there any plans to make one for automatics?

I've seen auto ones on phastekperformance's website

if its there its not listed correctly we havent released a part yet, we have the print made for the one part needed. i just haven't has time to make it. if there is a decent interest let me know and ill see if we can move it up in the production schedule.

This is what I was talking about: http://www.phastekperformance.com/20...t-gmca11-a.htm

I know if you ever came out with one for the auto I would def buy it eventually, would just take me awhile to save up. And I am sure there would be a decent amount of people who own the auto that would jump on this, just not sure how many exactly.

Just my thoughts, but I'd guess there are just as many, if not more modded automatic V6 owners here than manual, so I'd think the interest would be just as high.

I would tend to agree with KMPrenger, there is a vast majority of modded autos. In fact I think all te initial FI (TT and SC) guys were auto and just recently some manuals got in the FI game. Maybe make a poll and see what the results would be as far as would purchase in the next couple months and how many would be < 6 months out

I'm interested. I need every advantage I can against my wife.