Drive shaft lengths, an FJ62, and H55 or beating a dead horse?

[JTFJ62PDX]

agreed...who are all these people that need drive lines mod'ed? and the price...yikes. its looking like about $200.00 per prop shaft.


speaking of drivelines... for future thread searches and the benefit of the community


Post H55 swap - drive line measurements:

flange to flange distance with truck sitting on jack stands and the suspension relaxed
42.5" rear
26 3/8" front.

flange to flange distance with wheels on - truck sitting level and suspension loaded
42.5" rear
26 3/4" front.

I've been scouring the interwebs and the bowels of the MUD forums for any definitive info about this and I'm coming up empty handed. I believe we've got the same setup (or will soon enough!) FJ62, 3fe efi, 3f bell housing, h55 trans, stock vac transfer case. One exception, I'm on a 3" OME kit. Now, as this thing is my daily driver, I'd like to minimize the downtime while I'm doing this swap. The question I'd like to put out there; is the flange to flange measurement such a glass slipper fit that I should wait until the moment that I have my shiny, new h55 stabbed to have my existing driveshafts modified? Or can I take a measurement, like the ones you've posted here, and have some driveshafts fabbed up before hand? I'm feeling like enough of us have tackled this very project to reach some consensus on an acceptable length for our driveshafts. Or am I way off base, and the lesson here is to have patience and do it the old fashioned way and take a hard measurement? - in which case, I'll shut up and get back to wrenching.

 

[IBFJ62]

Personally, I'd wait until you've got it in place, but I seem to recall I had them lengthened/shortened about 3-4". I've got the med/heavy OME lift, which I think is about 2.5" of lift.

 

[Paul DiNapoli]

I've been scouring the interwebs and the bowels of the MUD forums for any definitive info about this and I'm coming up empty handed. I believe we've got the same setup (or will soon enough!) FJ62, 3fe efi, 3f bell housing, h55 trans, stock vac transfer case. One exception, I'm on a 3" OME kit. Now, as this thing is my daily driver, I'd like to minimize the downtime while I'm doing this swap. The question I'd like to put out there; is the flange to flange measurement such a glass slipper fit that I should wait until the moment that I have my shiny, new h55 stabbed to have my existing driveshafts modified? Or can I take a measurement, like the ones you've posted here, and have some driveshafts fabbed up before hand? I'm feeling like enough of us have tackled this very project to reach some consensus on an acceptable length for our driveshafts. Or am I way off base, and the lesson here is to have patience and do it the old fashioned way and take a hard measurement? - in which case, I'll shut up and get back to wrenching.

like i said - i could have been driving mine a full week earlier had i grabbed those measurements as soon as the trans was back in. but i didn’t - and ended up waiting what felt like eternity to get my drivelines back.

stab it in sunday - take your measures send em off monday morning.

in the meantime figure out all the other stuff and they’ll be ready right on time.

by the way i’ve got the tranny jack you can use and some left over 4x3 L metal you can have for cross member brackets

we’re a mile apart. i can come help you out after work if you want extra hands.

 

[JTFJ62PDX]

like i said - i could have been driving mine a full week earlier had i grabbed those measurements as soon as the trans was back in. but i didn’t - and ended up waiting what felt like eternity to get my drivelines back.

stab it in sunday - take your measures send em off monday morning.

in the meantime figure out all the other stuff and they’ll be ready right on time.

by the way i’ve got the tranny jack you can use and some left over 4x3 L metal you can have for cross member brackets

we’re a mile apart. i can come help you out after work if you want extra hands.

I'll definitely take you up on the offer for the trans jack and the extra hands, I'm still waiting on a couple parts to get shipped before I start digging into it. I'm hoping to do the transfer rebuild and assemble with the h55 next week. I'm cleaning parts and researching until then. Here's an odd question though, where the heck did you get your shifter boot? As far as I've been able to find the thing is discontinued and I can't find a comparable replacement. Maybe a hilux shift boot?

 

[Paul DiNapoli]

I'll definitely take you up on the offer for the trans jack and the extra hands, I'm still waiting on a couple parts to get shipped before I start digging into it. I'm hoping to do the transfer rebuild and assemble with the h55 next week. I'm cleaning parts and researching until then. Here's an odd question though, where the heck did you get your shifter boot? As far as I've been able to find the thing is discontinued and I can't find a comparable replacement. Maybe a hilux shift boot?

i bought all my conversion parts from @3_puppies - he's in Helena MT. He shipped me the transmission hump cover out of a 60 - and the shifter boot to go with. ping him - see if he has more parts to sell.

 

[4Cruisers]

In my '86 FJ60 project with OME suspension I'm using the '86 driveshafts, the '89 FJ62 donor vehicle axles, the '89 3FE, the '89 transfer case, the '86 bellhousing, and a new H55f. From everything I've read the 4/85-8/87 FJ60 driveshafts should work for an installation like yours.

 

[Paul DiNapoli]

In my '86 FJ60 project with OME suspension I'm using the '86 driveshafts, the '89 FJ62 donor vehicle axles, the '89 3FE, the '89 transfer case, the '86 bellhousing, and a new H55f. From everything I've read the 4/85-8/87 FJ60 driveshafts should work for an installation like yours.

it’d be nice for someone who’s done this to get under their truck and take flange to flange measurements for the benefit of the community.

put the speculation to rest and just post up the numbers.

** hint hint!!

 

[Skniper]

It has always been my understanding that the later fj60 driveshafts are what fits the h55f/fj62 conversion.
Should be plug n play, as you are basically recreating the later 60 drivetrain dimensions.

 

[Paul DiNapoli]

it'd be nice if someone has an H42 laying around they could measure. i'd be happy to crawl under my truck and measure my H55... it seems to me like the H55 is a bit longer than an H42 which would mean the drivelines shouldn't just drop right in.

maybe i'm missing something? maybe they're within a couple inches of each other and the slip yoke provides enough wiggle room?

 

[4Cruisers]

it’d be nice for someone who’s done this to get under their truck and take flange to flange measurements for the benefit of the community.

put the speculation to rest and just post up the numbers.

** hint hint!!

Installed the driveshafts yesterday and torqued the hardware today. Flange-to-flange front is 26-3/4" and rear is 42-3/8" along centerline of driveshafts. This is for an '86 FJ60 with OME heavy front/medium rear, 3FE, H55f, FJ62 transfer case (adapted to manual front drive engagement), FJ62 axles (with 4.11s), and new BFG LT235/85R16 ATs on 16" 70-Series Land Cruiser wheels. Basically the vehicle is complete, minus the carpet, door cards, and spare tire carrier/spare tire. Unloaded, no passengers, no fuel.

 

[4Cruisers]

it'd be nice if someone has an H42 laying around they could measure. i'd be happy to crawl under my truck and measure my H55... it seems to me like the H55 is a bit longer than an H42 which would mean the drivelines shouldn't just drop right in.

maybe i'm missing something? maybe they're within a couple inches of each other and the slip yoke provides enough wiggle room?

View attachment 1702401

View attachment 1702403

Went back out to the garage with the tape measure. H41/42 pre-4/85 are ~10-7/8" long. H55f and 4/85 and later H41/42 are ~14-5/16" long, longer due to the extension to accomodate 5th gear, extension also used on the 4-speeds.

Measurements were easy, had an '84 H41 in the garage sitting next to my '86 FJ60. The FJ60 hasn't been out of the garage since I installed the new H55f and the cleaned and repainted driveshafts. The extra headroom due to the lift and larger tires helped as well .

 

[JTFJ62PDX]

Just an update:

Still waiting on my driveshafts to come back from modification (hopefully they'll be done this week). Started the swap on a friday night after work and everything assembled and wired including reverse lights and NSS jumper by monday mid morning. Cross member bolted up and hanger brackets welded to the chassis. It was a long memorial day weekend and it's been torture waiting for the driveshafts to get wrapped up. Can't wait to see what the H55 does for the feel of the truck!

My flange to flange #'s ended up at:

Front - 26.625"
Rear - 42.4375"

On a different note, when I was pulling a tape for my driveshaft lengths I noticed that my front pinion was sticking way up in the air. I put an electric level on the face of the pinion and it read (sitting on dead level ground) 100 degrees -or 10 degrees above perpendicular to the ground. The face of the front output flange on the transfer case reads a perfect 90 - or dead perpendicular to the ground. Should I be concerned about how out of parallel the front flanges are? Should I try to correct with shims and try to get it closer to parallel with the transfer case? I'm assuming this was the result of installing the OME kit a few years ago. The steering has been a little squirrely (pulls all over the road, gets sucked into ruts, requires constant input), but I mostly attributed it to being the nature of the beast.

 

[Cruiserdrew]

On a different note, when I was pulling a tape for my driveshaft lengths I noticed that my front pinion was sticking way up in the air. I put an electric level on the face of the pinion and it read (sitting on dead level ground) 100 degrees -or 10 degrees above perpendicular to the ground. The face of the front output flange on the transfer case reads a perfect 90 - or dead perpendicular to the ground. Should I be concerned about how out of parallel the front flanges are? Should I try to correct with shims and try to get it closer to parallel with the transfer case? I'm assuming this was the result of installing the OME kit a few years ago. The steering has been a little squirrely (pulls all over the road, gets sucked into ruts, requires constant input), but I mostly attributed it to being the nature of the beast.

So it is the nature of the beast, and it's easy to correct. Get some steel Caster shims. After OME lift, 2 degrees down in my FJ62 makes it handle really well. In an FJ60, I might do 4 degrees. They are alleged to have less caster stock. But 2 degrees made a huge difference in my FJ62.

Regarding the flange angles, you will never correct that. Since the front is only engaged at relatively low speed, it doesn't matter. If you had the front engaged at 70 mph, it would matter a lot.