Who's made their own square front dshaft with 52"s

[lochenjons]

It seems easy enough but others say it can be tricky fabbing a square front dshaft. My plan is to cut off the ends of my stock dshaft, grind the yoke (i think it is...?), and weld them onto (into slightly actaully) square receiver hitch tube. Anyone done this with a 52" spring swap and wanna give me measurements to save me the effort of figruing it out myself?

 

[gmc4cw]

I made my own square tube driveshaft. I don't run 52's but there really isn't that much difference.

the yoke from the axle end will slip inside the larger tubing. I drilled a hole in each side and plug welded it as well as welding around the end. The cv has about a 1" slug on the end. I ground flats in it and welded it to the smaller tube.

how much tube you use is going to depend on how much engagement you want. the more the tubes engage the less likely they are to bind. mine have 4" of compression and 14" of slip. thats factoring that there will still be 4" engaged at full slip. I did that so that I could move the axle forward later and not need another shaft.

the shaft is really heavy. really, really heavy. I made the outer tube. I started with flat steel and bent it and welded it up on the corner. that way there is no weld seam to worry about. you may not have the resources on hand to do this. buy the material that ha shad the weld removed. I have $0.00 in my shaft. just time.

I'm feeling nice tonight (drinking) so I will post the pictures so you can see them. you have been here long enough and should join up. any other questions, just ask.

 

[lochenjons]

Yeah I know I've been meaning to join for the longest time but all these mods keeps demanding more money. Once I finish my x over and 52"s Ill have money left over to become official . Thanks for the pics, looks pretty beefy. Are you using anything to lube it? Yeah yeah I know...I'm asking you how you lube your shaft but I just had to ask...

 

[gmc4cw]

Yeah I know I've been meaning to join for the longest time but all these mods keeps demanding more money. Once I finish my x over and 52"s Ill have money left over to become official . Thanks for the pics, looks pretty beefy. Are you using anything to lube it? Yeah yeah I know...I'm asking you how you lube your shaft but I just had to ask...

PERVERT!

in the last pic you can see the red grease. I greased it, installed it, then painted it in place. the whole thing is overkill. I couldn't use up the 4" of compression if I tried.

I originally made both pieces of tube 3 foot long. that was way to much. I got the pieces home and almost cut them in half.

If you are buying material I would say to buy 2 foot long pieces of each. that will be more then you need but it is always easier to cut more off then weld more on. the first pic is before I shortened it.

 

[rhuarc31]

I built my own, man was it heavy, ended up with a leaky front diff seal for my trouble. On extreme 4x4 they said to that you'll get a tighter fit using seamed tubing instead of receiver stock, I didnt' and it ended up pretty sloppy. I used 2 18 inch long pieces of tubing though. Keep in mind that I used 6 inch lift 52's, not stockers. I ended up building one out of PTO drive shaft stuff from the local farm and fleet, like it a lot better.

 

[lochenjons]

I'm also debating whether to have the male side at the tcase and the female side at the diff like gmc4cw or the other way around. I can imagine with it like gmc, water might get into it and it would never come out. But it would easier for it stay lubricated I can imagine. There are pros and cons to both, whyd you all choose what you did?

BTW I'm planning making mine have enough slip that I could use it for the rear if I absolutely had to/worst case scenario/just to get home.

 

[gmc4cw]

water can not get trapped in mine. the yoke is hollow where the splines used to engage. I made mine that way because the yoke fits into the larger tube almost perfectly. the CV has a stub on the end that when I ground flats in it fit in the smaller tube.

I should have taken pics as I made it but I was kind of winging it. Turns out the way I made it was least amount of work.

Basically I had two pieces of tube, the yoke and CV, and I fit them together like a puzzle. to do it the other way I would have had to cut the splined end off the yoke and butt weld it to the smaller tube and the CV would only be held on by a butt weld. right now if there was no weld you would have to beat the CV off the tube because its inside by about 1"

I can't use my shaft on the rear because of the flange to mount it to the t-case.

is all that as clear as mud?