driveshaft dynamic damper missing

[ende]

Today I received my new rebuilt driveshafts from Cardone. There is no dynamic damper on the right shaft. Cardone's website picture for this application shows it, but it's not on my shaft. Should I worry about it, return them, or disassemble and put a new damper on? I would have replaced just the inner joints, but Honda wanted about $200 ea while the rebuilts go for $75. Guess you get what you pay for.

Matt
2001 Silver 5MT/AC
Owned about a week.

[RobertSmalls]

I was unaware that these shafts were available in the aftermarket. I hope it's for real, and not just the shafts off a CRX (which IIRC are the same length on one side and a quarter inch off on the other).

Cardone does stuff like that all the time. They might feed you a line about how they balanced the shaft without it, or something.

I'd call another parts store in the area and ask them to take a look and see if it has the damper. If not, then I guess you gotta install it. If so, I'd get the one that looks the same as what you're taking off.

[crxgator]

you'll be fine without it. i wouldnt lose any sleep over it.

[ende]

Robert, unfortunately none of the local parts stores stock it. I ordered it through Rock Auto and it was drop shipped directly from Cardone. Rock auto always ships through their network of WD's first and if none of them have it then the mfgr drop ships it. I'm sure these are real slow movers like just about all Insight parts. Thanks for the heads up re the CRX axles. When I get the things apart I'll double check the length.

[ende]

I contacted Cardone and they were great about getting back which I really appreciate. They said the shafts were balanced and it would be fine and I agree in most cases that's true. After studying the issue for awhile it finally occurred to me the dynamic damper is not about balance, but about torque steer. Unequal length shafts will exhibit different amounts of twisting under torque loads resulting in steering pull to the shorter side. Cruising down the freeway you'll never notice it's gone, but if you like to drive hard you will notice more torque steer. The damper helps to offset the twisting under load and thereby reduces torque induced steering. Some of the new cars with electronic stability control can electronically manage torque steer, but our little Insight was designed 10 years ago and missed out on that technology.

[crxgator]

you really aren't going to have to worry about torque steer in an insight. this car has less than 100 hp. your axle shaft will be fine. ive had aftermarket shafts without the balance damper on my honda which had 200 WHP and it didnt make a difference.

[jonnyvtec]

I think you were fed balony regarding torque steer. Its simply to balance any vibration from a shaft as things wear in the joints and manufacturing tolerance. It will not effect torque distribution between the driven wheels, the length of the driveshafts and the different angles already influence that regardless of the dampener.

[ende]

Okay, maybe I'm reaching a little with torque steer, but I've chirped the tires a few times. What I can't get past is that Honda included a dynamic damper for a reason which has yet to be adequately explained either on this list or any of the others I've searched. Everybody just says don't worry about it. If you can't feel any difference in axles with or without the damper perhaps its' purpose is to protect the cv joints from excess wear and premature failure? After web searching "mass damper" and "torsional vibration" it has to be there to soak up the vibrations that are induced when torque is applied, ie torsion or twist. Cardone operates in the aftermarket and their priorities are considerably different from Honda's. Being competitive and making a profit rank higher than engineering quality. Cardone's unit is no doubt perfectly safe, balanced, and certainly a lot cheaper than Honda I'll bet it doesn't last nearly as long as the original Honda unit with the damper.

[MN Driver]

Is this sort of damper the reason why I can't feel the sag in the driveline if, let's say I'm in second gear and release and reapply the throttle and the car doesn't jerk around? Every car that I've driven except for the Insight does that, even little 1liter engines like what the Insight has.

[jonnyvtec]

Its a rubber ring that slides on a solid metal bar.

Its not used like a driveshaft donut, neither does it decouple the gearbox output from the road wheel with a compliant component. Its just a rubber ring on a metal bar. Dampened engine pulleys for example have an inner and outer metal part with the rubber sandwiched between the parts to give it some flexibility, they serve a very different reason though with torsional vibration from the huge range of frequency pulses on a crankshaft.