Thanks! It was well overdue for a better picture. Don't mean to hijack the thread but to expand on what the Dorman tech said, the golden rule is U-joint yokes must always be aligned with each other, because angles cause the center section to speed up then slow down relative to the input/output speed, as the yoke rotates the + shaped joint in and out (animations show this better). If the U-joint yokes are not exactly aligned this speed difference will break apart the joints. The tech also said each of their pieces are balanced independently which results in the whole being balanced.528i-1981 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 10:01 am First off, great new avatar pic of your E12 in the snow. Interesting about the drive shaft halves. Everything I read about separating the halves stressed the importance of marking the orientation to preserve balance. I was pretty paranoid about that. Here you've Frankensteined two halves and preserved overall balance. I wonder what's up with that?
The risk of not balancing the entire assembly is that there's a chance that each half's balance could cause resonance at certain frequencies when combined and cause vibration, which is resolved with more advanced balancing. But BMW's center bearing support design can absorb minor resonance that would otherwise show up in setups with no supports like live axle.