Originally Posted by fondu

The shop manual for 1994 states not to remove the bolts attaching the shaft to the guibo and if the guibos are damaged to replace the whole DS assembly. According to the dealer parts diagram there are not different weighted bolts available for purchase.

I took the time to weigh the bolts and all 12 weighed 67 grams. So with that info I can safely assume they were not balanced with the guibos attached from the factory. Possibly one reason my local guy could not get it to balance, since I told him it has to be balanced with guibos attached due to the balancing bolts...

The manual also states the companion flanges on each end are to be 180 degress opposed to each other. IIRC that is technically "out of phase". From your video it seems the flanges for the 98-00 are aligned "in phase" at each 120 degree bolt hole on either end. Other pictures of used 98-00 driveshafts confirm this. Would be nice if toyota could give us more details on why there are such subtle differences between the model years.

As for B&T, he was not interested in taking on another one. He did recommend someone that can make a new shaft from end to end but made it seem like balancing the original would take months to achieve even with proper fixturing... oh well.

Anyways, this info reveals there is hope in finding a solution.

Originally Posted by Amskeptic

The early LS 400 manuals say that they do use balancing bolts at the guibos. You leave the guibos on the driveshaft and index each bolt that you take off the trans/diff flanges.

I am sorry that there are professionals who have no sense of adventure, no love of a good challenge ...