There’s only a few things that most at-home mechanics can’t or won’t tackle. For some it’s paint and others it’s interior. Unless you have some pretty expensive and specific tools, engine machining and building drivelines is another. When the time came for us to get a driveshaft in our ’55 Bel Air, we knew our angle grinder and welder weren’t going to handle it.
Luckily, the folks at Inland Empire Driveline make it easy as cake to get a new one. There are definitely local driveshaft shops, although those are starting to disappear like racetracks. We chose IEDLS for a few reasons. The biggest is that they really support our hobby – ads in magazines and are at a lot of Good Guys shows and other shows. Second, I don’t have to drive an hour each way to my local driveline shop. And last, I’ve used them for about five different cars and they have always been excellent.
(Chad Note: I too have used Inland Empire on multiple occasions! The last two driveshafts for our 1966 Bel Air wagon came from IEDLS. Our first, a 3.5″ steel shaft, went behind the 400 cubic inch small block and 700r4 combo that made 750 horsepower with some nitrous in this 4200 lb beast. Our second, a much larger aluminum shaft, backed up the same 400, but this time with big ProCharger power and a 4L85e overdrive automatic. With this combo, and a heavier driver, we were at 4,600 lbs race weight and never had a problem with the IEDLS shaft at over 150 mph!)
Ordering A Custom Driveshaft
The first step was to hop on their site, and download this driveshaft measurement form. We printed it out then headed to the garage to fill it out. In reality, there’s only a few measurements that Inland Empire Driveline needs in order to build you the perfect driveshaft. First, how far is the output shaft sticking out of the transmission? Second, how far is it from the face of the output shaft to the face of the yoke on the rearend? The last two major dimensions are the width of the U-Joint area and length of that U-Joint area on the yoke.
It’s always great to give too much information as opposed to not enough. We gave them the transmission type, which in this case is a 4L80e. We give them the type of rearend, which is the stock ’55 Bel Air rearend. They also want to know if you want the driveshaft made of steel or aluminum and how much horsepower are you running. Do you have a blower/turbo or nitrous? All these things they take into consideration to get you the correct driveshaft that will live. In this case it was pretty simple as it’s an LS1 with a cam, 4L80e and stock rearend. While we are building this into a Gasser, it’s all for show and not go. The plan is to have a great cruiser, not a race car.
Now you can fill out a form online and give them this info through the link above. Call us old school, we just printed it and filled it all out. Then we scanned and emailed it off. After a week or so, a nice long box showed up at our doorstep.
Installation was is easier than all the measuring. We slid the new driveshaft yoke into the transmission, then popped the U-Joint into the yoke on the rearend and tightened down the two U-Joint straps. Within about 10 minutes this driveshaft was checked off our to-do list and we can now move onto other things.
