Yesterday I dug thru my collection of spare parts,and came across 2 complete front drive shafts for older GM 4x4s..the type that had a 4 threaded bolt hole style CV yoke ,not the 1980 & up "round ring" style..(Picture below shows the yoke ,in the upper center ,the round ring type is in the top right of the photo)..
My '82 GMC has that round ring 4 bolt style yoke...(A lot easier to install!)..
I thought I had a brand new rebuilt shaft of that round ring style,but evidently I either traded it for the old style one,or gave it away or sold it..
...
My fuzzy memory seems to recall a guy with a newer truck than I had at the time needed the round ring style shaft,so I swapped him for his good used 4 threaded bolt style,which my old '77 GMC used...(that truck is long gone now)..
I don't need a whole drive shaft at the moment,but I was wondering if I could swap the round ring type flange in place of the old 4 threaded bolt style,assuming the length is correct...
(I forgot to check the length and u-joints,I think older GM's used the smaller external clip style u-joints,my truck uses the larger inner clip u-joints in the CV joint..)..if the u-joints aren't the same,then my idea of swapping yokes to have a spare shaft will be nullified..
I also found a custom made non CV joint shaft that I kept from a '71 K10 Suburban,evidently someone made it with just one u-joint on each end..
It worked fine in that truck,there was practically no angle to the front shaft..
My '82 has sagging front springs so there is no real angle to the front shaft on that truck either..been tempted to "delete" the CV joint,if you could..plowing wears out those u-joints pretty quickly..luckily those 2 on my truck are still good,the one at the diff was trashed though,and I replaced it yesterday..
I've always hated CV type drive shafts,they suck to repair,and most of the time the ball stub on the CV part is trashed,and your forced to replace the whole shaft with a rebuilt,to the tune of $250+ bucks..
My '82 GMC has that round ring 4 bolt style yoke...(A lot easier to install!)..
I thought I had a brand new rebuilt shaft of that round ring style,but evidently I either traded it for the old style one,or gave it away or sold it..
...My fuzzy memory seems to recall a guy with a newer truck than I had at the time needed the round ring style shaft,so I swapped him for his good used 4 threaded bolt style,which my old '77 GMC used...(that truck is long gone now)..
I don't need a whole drive shaft at the moment,but I was wondering if I could swap the round ring type flange in place of the old 4 threaded bolt style,assuming the length is correct...
(I forgot to check the length and u-joints,I think older GM's used the smaller external clip style u-joints,my truck uses the larger inner clip u-joints in the CV joint..)..if the u-joints aren't the same,then my idea of swapping yokes to have a spare shaft will be nullified..
I also found a custom made non CV joint shaft that I kept from a '71 K10 Suburban,evidently someone made it with just one u-joint on each end..
It worked fine in that truck,there was practically no angle to the front shaft..
My '82 has sagging front springs so there is no real angle to the front shaft on that truck either..been tempted to "delete" the CV joint,if you could..plowing wears out those u-joints pretty quickly..luckily those 2 on my truck are still good,the one at the diff was trashed though,and I replaced it yesterday..
I've always hated CV type drive shafts,they suck to repair,and most of the time the ball stub on the CV part is trashed,and your forced to replace the whole shaft with a rebuilt,to the tune of $250+ bucks..
