question with front drive line

[53chevy]

On my front drive shaft i have about an inch of splines showing, what should i do to fix it? Cut it and put a piece of tube in and weld it up? New front drive shaft? Thanks

 

[garlicbreath]

your front axle moves back when the springs compress, don't worry if you have splines showing, just make sure it doesn't bottom out under full compression or you'll shove the driveshaft into the transfercase and break fun stuff like tranny to transfer adapters and such.

 

[53chevy]

I just want to be strong enough, how much play should i have before it falls out?

 

[dyeager535]

The front shaft I've got has just over one inch of travel. Not much to me.

You need to make sure the front axle isn't "hanging off" of the driveshaft at full droop. Probably unlikely that you will run into that position, but I'd be most comfortable knowing that I wasn't going to overcompress it in stuff AND overextend it.

 

[53chevy]

yeah, safer to have the shaft come out then have it jam everything up

 

[rcamacho]

yeah, safer to have the shaft come out then have it jam everything up

Yeah, it's a great way to break an aluminum xfer case.

 

[53chevy]

could the splines strip if theres not enough contact?

 

[gmc4cw]

a stock shaft has about 3.5 inches of travel. unhook it from the yoke and see where you are in the travel. if you can't pull the shaft out any further then you should probably lengthen it. if when you unhook it it does not droop any further then the yoke then you are maxed for angle. also another case where you will need to change something. you can grind the stops out of your CV to get more angle but it will shorten the life of the joints.

 

[dyeager535]

a stock shaft has about 3.5 inches of travel.

I measured mine. It's 1.5"

 

[53chevy]

thats the inner dia of a front drive shaft?

 

[dyeager535]

No, that's the amount of travel that my stock front driveshaft has! Not a lot to play with.

 

[mrk5]

Every stock front driveshaft I've had an opportunity to measure has at least 3" of travel. I'd say I've checked at least half-a-dozen.

Is your shaft somehow from a newer IFS truck. I believe they don't have much travel because, well because it's an IFS and the diff isn't moving.