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No it wasn't - I read all Duckworthe's posts before asking. He just says they were really bad. I was hoping when he got them back he would have some actual numbers.

Did Todd tell you how bad your shafts were before he fixed them?

Me too. Don't the military 200A alternator kits come with a whole new set of mounting brackets and stuff? I think that's the key - it doesn't just swap in place. The kits also come with upgraded wiring and other relevant electronics, I think.

The damage is that you'll just break something else. I did what you're doing, and put a grade-8 3/8" bolt in there... then promptly broke the L-bracket. I made a beefy L-bracket to replace it, 3/8" thick, and then broke the rear ear off the alternator. So it's a dangerous road you're going...

No, nothing welded to the L-bracket.

Mine is the same. Bolt head, top alternator ear, L-bracket, locknut.

The gasket I blew is between the two halves of the water pump (which you have assembled in your picture).

Thanks, it will be interesting to see how far out of spec your shafts were.

The damage in the test occurred in the on-road test, I believe. Reading the whole test is pretty interesting... what a cluster-frack. They pretty much destroy the driveline and a couple engines and transmissions within a couple thousand miles, and it doesn't even look like they set up any...

In reading the studies, it talks about how they put new tight and balanced shafts on, and the truck promptly destroys them. I think it was within 100 miles of driving, and they are back to like 0.015" hinging. Then, the study points out that it didn't degrade much worse from there, regardless...

It looks like that is the later (2003) study. Here's the first one (1998 ). Check this out... That doesn't sound like the exact bracket we currently have, so I'm assuming they changed it as a result of this study. Interesting how their first failure was the water pump. Next the starter...

Interesting. It sounds like all the trucks should have received the upgrades - I wonder if that's true. It's also clear that when things aren't right in the driveline, it can have big effects. As an aside, I wonder what this looks like? "One of Mitchell's suggestions — a reinforced rear tail...

Interesting. Do you have any more information (a document perhaps describing the install)? Do you have a picture of a data plate with the "D" stamp?

Another thing I forgot to mention is that all the safety/lock plates on my u-joints were missing! There are supposed to be these thin sheetmetal plates that you put on top of the u-joint cap before the bolts go in. After the bolts are in, you bend up the ears/tabs on the sheetmetal and it hold...

Officially declaring it a root cause will be difficult, because the cause-effect relationship is so indirect. My front driveshaft had 0.055" runout, which is way more than the 0.005" spec. It was also out of balance, one spline twisted ("out of phase"), and the u-joints had wallowed out the...

Stronger brackets are great, but I think that is trying to treat the symptoms not the root cause. Without solving the underlying issue, if you eventually build a bracket strong enough not to break all you will likely do is push the failure to the next weakest part in the chain. I doubt it's...

What I do is any time I need a bolt (and can wait to get it) I order a whole box from McMaster. I usually wait until I have a few different bolts to order, to save shipping. I keep them organized by diameter in a plastic parts organizer (e.g. M4, M6, M8, etc.). I only have a couple lengths of...

If you're going to get a bunch, I would order from McMaster or Fastenal. Ace is great when you need a few, but they only have them stored in little divided plastic organizers so they only have a few of each type/size.

I find that Home Depot is hit or miss for the metric hardware for these trucks, but Ace Hardware seems to have a much larger selection (stainless, 10.9/12.9 class fasteners, flanged head, various lengths, etc.).

Mine sounds a lot more clackity than that too, though it's always hard to tell with the sound in videos. The audio can be very deceptive compared to in person. What I want to know is why we can't have that nice long dipstick too? haha