shortening a driveshaft??

[chevy_mud_84]

i just put a th400 and np205 in my short box pickup, and it came outta a long box truck so i have the rear dshaft for it but it's too long so i was thinking of shortening it to the right length in my shop class at school. How hard would this be to do?

 

[sweetk30]

my local drive shaft shop would be about 50 bucks with balence job also.

and the ends are pressed in to the tube just a bit and then set in balencer/lathe and checked for true and if good then welded . lot more than people think.

 

[chevy_mud_84]

i was thinking of just cuttin out of the tube what i dont need and then putting it in a vice and setting a level on it until its straight and then tack welding it then checking it again and then fully weld it.

 

[rick88blaze]

If it's not done right, and balanced it will more than likely give you a lot of vibration going down the road.

Rick

 

[sweetk30]

actualy thay make sure the ykes are level with each end. i watched them do it and it isnt that easy if you want high speed smothness.

not saying you cant do it but it was vary specific when i watched them build my last shaft from scratch.

 

[jk3078]

Its hard to do right,easy to do poorly. If its an offroad only truck than sure give it a try, anything on road spend a little $ and have it done right. Shortening is cheap anyway.

Cutting the tube in half and re-welding wont work, the shaft will twist off at the welds.

 

[gmtech954]

ive done my own before but i built a jig to do it to verify everything is in allignment. if you are only doing one shaft then have it done at a shop if you plan on doing a lot of shafts build an adjustable jig

 

[MNorby]

I have shortened and spliced a few shafts. OFFROAD use only really. I took 2 peices of angle iron and ran the length of the shaft over the splice on each side to hold it straight then tacked on each corner before welding. Not really a "right" fix but got me on the trail to go playing.