Double cardan joint wobble

[80t0ylc]

FYI, the slips will interchange. You can use your short slip on the other shaft.

Thanks! That's a nice thought. I wondered about that, hadn't tried it yet but the problem is that the main part of the larger shaft is 18.5" long and with my slip fully retacted it adds 4.5" to that. Comes to 23" minimum length. With my suspension in the static position, flange to flange is 20.75" give or take a couple of tenths. I'd love to take my angle grinder and shorten the main part of that large DS about 4". Not sure how that would come out.

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

I shortened a stock shaft for the rear of GB. it came out pretty good. Score a line down the whole thing using a piece of angle iron so it will be inline with the shaft, and you can match the 2 parts up later. I used a metal chop saw, and made sure to keep the mark line straight up so if the cuts weren't perfect, they would at least be the same. I found a piece of round tube that just slipped inside to reenforce the shaft, slid it back together and welded it up.

FYI mine does not shake enough to worry about it over the vibs from the 38.5 boggers....

 

[80t0ylc]

I shortened a stock shaft for the rear of GB. it came out pretty good. Score a line down the whole thing using a piece of angle iron so it will be inline with the shaft, and you can match the 2 parts up later. I used a metal chop saw, and made sure to keep the mark line straight up so if the cuts weren't perfect, they would at least be the same. I found a piece of round tube that just slipped inside to reenforce the shaft, slid it back together and welded it up.

FYI mine does not shake enough to worry about it over the vibs from the 38.5 boggers....

Thanks for your assistance, Jerod! If I shorten the DS, which section should be shortened. I'll need to loose approx 4 inches.

I think I could loose 4" in either section, but I'm new to this. Don't want to ruin the DS :whoops:

 

[pappy]

The skinny section is the slip tube. Don't cut.

The fat section is the shaft tube. Cut and shorten/lengthen there.

 

[2ndGenToyotaFan]

What Pappy said. If/When you take the chop saw to it, you might want to put a block of wood under the section to be cut, so it sits level while cutting. So it's not sitting on a weld or something...

 

[80t0ylc]

The skinny section is the slip tube. Don't cut.

The fat section is the shaft tube. Cut and shorten/lengthen there.

Thank you kindly, Pappy! I appreciate the helpful advice everyone is providing.

 

[80t0ylc]

Since I don't have a 12 ton press yet , I took my OEM front DS to Les Schwab to get it rebuilt. Not many choices around here, but they did a good job. I had them replace all u-joints and the center ball kit in the DC. What a difference - it's tight and clean. Here's a pic of it tonight before I re-installed it.

Now I need to take it for another shakedown run. Since I live in snow country, I'll need this DS for the winter. I hope to be able to buy and mod the other DS for off road and the rough stuff, and save this slightly more fragile DS for smoother performance at higher speeds.

 

[80t0ylc]

To report back, the rebuilt DS works excellent. Quiet and smooth as new. I have to agree with previous comments, though, as to the overall strength of the DC joint. My gut feel is that being very careful about your choice to lock hubs and use 4WD will help to extend the life of this front DS. For trail and hard use I believe that a straight DS with a quality u-joint at each end and no DC would, by far, out last the OEM design. I feel that the Mr. T's engineers were somehow convinced that limited life smoothness was more important than long life strength with some vibration at medium and higher speeds. I hope to be able to get a non DC shaft fabbed up to compare.