The uni's look idenical.

I imagine the alloy would be better at speed due to it's lower weight.. any imbalance is going to be proportionatly lower than the steel one.. but I doubt it would make any measureable different to anything.. I just want it.

I sortof went through the same thing as you with tailshaft choices, knew it would be getting a hard time, but also might get a few runs at 180+ if/when I take it to the track. My car is an EL XR, but for some reason had a steel tailshaft. But isnt speedlimited to 180.

I have spoken to a heap of people about it and theres no clear cut answers, my local ford dealer didnt even know there were XR tailshafts I have heard that the tailshaft breaking issue not so much the tailshaft as the extension housing on the auto's, hence why not all of the manual XR6 have the alloy tailshafts, but every auto XR I have seen has. But as I said, heaps of rumours, not a whole heap of solid info.

I went out of my way to get a alloy tailshaft from someone on here, cost more in freight than the shaft did, got it down here and dad cut the packing off with a stanley knife and scored it After that I wasnt sure I trusted it, so hit up a wrecker in bendigo, who had a NOS AU TE/TS50 Auto tailshaft, which is in this photo, next to my original tailshaft

I cant comment on wall thickness, but the actual diameter of the (E-Series) tailshaft is larger in the alloy shafts, meaning it should be able to transmit more torque (than if it was the same size as the steel).

My personal feeling is that the steel is probably stronger in torsion, but the alloy wouldnt be far behind it, and has the advantage of a higher resonant frequency ie. No big bang at 180+. The other thing to consider (which put me off the second hand alloy shaft I have) is that the aluminium shaft will become weaker and weaker its whole life due to fatigue, whereas steel will fatigue to a certain point, then stay constant.

The AU one fitted straight up with no issues at all, length is identical, but I just noticed when I was under the car the other day a couple of slight marks on it where is has touched the floorpan under the rear seats, but a bit of love with the old 'american screwdriver' shouldn't sort that out

I read somewhere that the alloy ones were double layered with something between them to absorb imbalances?

Just tried to find where I read that and can't find it.. so can't verify..

ur lucky to find one.my muffler knock mine,took off the counter balance.can only do 1o5kph or over 130 or else all hell breaks loose.had to replace rear seals,bearing and bushes on the tranny.cant find a replacement alloy shaft in perth,wrekers tell me there as rare as hens teeth.$1100 for a new one.can anyone recommend an engineer to rebalance it?

mine doesn't have the big steel balancer,, either the alloy one, or the metal one that came with the gearbox..... is it supposed to?

also the alloy one has a shorter spline than the metal one.. not sure what the deal is with that either..

I was told The only difference between the auto n manual one is slightly shorter but the auto one can still be used on manual boxs, was just hearsay so I dont know how true it is

E series tail shafts for Sedans are the same length for both Auto and Manual. AU shaft are different length, AU auto can be used in E series but not the Manual Tail Shaft unless you have the AU 5 speed fitted.

Long wheel base, wagons and Fairlane, ute etc are also the same between Auto and 5 speed but of course will be too long for the sedans.

its the harmonic distortion from the steel shaft that causes failure in the 4 speed auto extension housing.
most will say the tail shafts fail, but its after the extension housing fails/breaks is when the tailshaft self destructs..
thats why falcons before the 4 speed auto was released had no limiter.

to over come the issue in xr's ect they used the alloy shaft, which will still have harmonic destortion, but the inertia from the alloy shaft is much less at high speeds..

as for one being stronger over the other? thats debatable...

i part stripped a xr6 ef about 2 years ago,still had trans in it.was in a shed about 3 ks out of town,was red sedan,womans name was kylie and driving a el waggon gunmetal i think.have to look at a map.

I'm also doing a t5 conversion, having trouble tracking down tailshaft though. will a Tailshaft AUII XR8 Manual Alloy one fit? it looks identical to the one you have






cheers

Should do, mine was an AU V8 Auto one, so as long as auto and manual tailshafts were the same on AU's (someone can clarify) then it should be fine

nope, au manual shaft is about 50mm shorter than au auto..

Yes the manual one is shorter because the manual gearbox is longer isn't it?

yes..