[Deuce Cam]

Recently I noticed a ring of rust on the exposed yoke part of my acpt cf ds where it goes into the transmission. I also noticed that the lower half of the black rubber gasket/o-ring on the transmission (piece that the ds yoke slides into) has a film of oil while the top half is dry (can be seen best in the first pic); FWIW, I haven't been losing transmission fluid.

Are any of you experiencing these characteristics with your ds and is this normal? Is it a cause for concern or am I trippin'. Here are some pics.









My main concern is that the rust could damage the yolk or even the rubber gasket/o-ring on the transmission over time. You probably noticed that only half of the exposed yolk has rust and there seems to be a clear line seperating the clean metal and rust. My understanding is that the cf ds twists under load to some degree which means it probably has some expansion/contraction. I'm worried that the rusty part of the yolk is sliding up against the o-ring at full expansion thus creating this distinct border line between the rust and clean metal.

For reference this cf ds was installed after 1.5 years of ownership (about 11.5K miles). The stock ds went through one winter with about 12 trips to the ski resort )there was no rust on the stocker in the same area when I removed it). The cf ds has only been on the car for about 7 months/6k miles and the car saw the same amount of trips to the ski resort this year as last year. I have had absolutely zero problems with the cf ds.

Edit: I was able to clean the rust off the ds yolk today! For those of you with aftermarket drive shafts I recommend checking the yolk every once in a while for rust (especially those who drive their car on snow, ice, dirt, etc.). Cleaning the rust off is very easy and will help protect your investment (the hardest part is removing the ds although it could possibly be done while installed). I used wd-40 and an extra-fine grit synthetic steel wool pad (was $1.97 at home depot) to remove the rust. I sprayed the rust with the wd 40 last night and went at the yolk with the steel wool today (not sure how much the wd helped). The steel wool removed all of the rust in a few minutes with a little elbow grease and without scratching the metal. The yolk now looks brand new.

However, I'm still wondering if the oil film on the lower half of the o-ring is normal.

[Kickstand]

Didn't the stock shaft have some sort of little cover that extended over that part of the shaft? Its been a while since I put my shaft in my car. I have no rust on my shaft there but I live in FL and it doesn't see road salt.

[Deuce Cam]

^^ The oem shaft and cf shaft are the same length but the yolk on cf shaft is longer which is why part of the yolk ends up being exposed. All of the acpt and ds shop install pics I've seen all have the gap, it's normal. The only reason I can think of why a gap/longer yolk is present on an aftermarket ds vs. the completely covered oem is because there is more twist/expansion/contraction in carbon/aluminum? Just a guess....

They use dirt/gravel instead of road salt up in the mountains here in AZ. The parking lot at the ski area I go to is all dirt with bits of pulverized volcanic rock (terrible stuff). I sprayed the crap out of the underbody of my car with water after every trip so dirt wouldn't build up; maybe that's part of the reason why there is rust.

Hopefully some others will chime in. I know the underbody of my car is pretty untarnished compared to some of you midwest, northeast guys. Surely I can't be the only one.

[Deuce Cam]

Bump for some feedback.

Edit: I was able to remove the rust, but I'm still wondering about the oil film on the o-ring. Original post has been updated.

[SoJDM.com]

Any machined surface can rust - usually in the environment the driveshaft yoke operates there is little rust because there is enough oil mist, vapor, etc. to prevent it happening. This happens because more of the machined yoke is exposed than in the stock setup. With salted roads this can be more of a problem.

By the o-ring, if you meant the tailhousing oil seal, then it is normal to see a small amount of fluid on the bottom half of the seal as a result of removing the driveshaft. BTW, when reinserting the driveshaft into the seal the yoke surface should be lubricated before inserting the yoke nose into the seal. To prevent/retard further rusting put a film of oil or light grease on the portion of the yoke exposed after installation.

[Deuce Cam]

^^^ Thanks for the reply about the oil seal, I figured it was normal. The rust probably could have been prevented if I had lubricated the whole yoke when I originally installed the ds instead of just lubricating the end that went into the transmission.