Hello,
I have a 2013 GT Convertible, manual transmission. Took it to the shop for some other things and they said the center carrier for the driveshaft has too much play and needs to be replaced. If I pull on it, the driveshaft will move maybe 1/2 inch either way. There is no clunking, noise, or vibration happening. Just wondering if I need to replace it or if that is normal.

Thanks.

I couldn't find any actual specification cruising through the book to tell if it was out-of-spec or not, but if you don't have any driving concerns and on visual inspection the rubber doesn't look perished and it doesn't feel rough when turning the driveshaft by hand in neutral (the only thing the book does outright mention), it's probably fine to continue. It's a part of the driveshaft wholesale, so the Ford way to 'repair' the issue should the center support actually end up bad is to replace the driveshaft entirely. Unfortunately, that solution is no longer available because the driveshaft has been discontinued. The 'fix' in the modern day is to go with an aftermarket 1-piece driveshaft (from Ford themselves or otherwise) that ditches the center support or there is one group now making replacement aftermarket center bearing supports due to the OEM driveshaft being discontinued. I don't have any experience with these replacement center supports, I just know they exist as an option, so do your due diligence should you go down that path.

No one had any kind of kit for this 4 years ago when I found mine trashed.
My 14, S197 only had like 11K miles too. I think Ford just had some bad rubber.
I went crazy with multiple sets of wheels and tires, trying to find vibration.


My fix was way cheaper ($20 and a couple tack welds), but should probably use the kit if you are doing anything
more than auto-X

Thank you. That helps.

Mustang2014vert said:

Thank you. That helps.

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Try Drive Shaft Specialties, they provide custom shafts, half shafts and all kinds of goodness for the racing industry. If you should decide to go with a single piece unit (and you should) dont get sucked into the carbon fiber unit, virtually no one im familiar with uses one, they are like CF wheels, great for Cars n Coffee not so much in real life.