you can drill the cruiser flange out on a drill press without having to take the u-joint out of the d-shaft, just mate them up and clamp them together on the end away from where your working and push the shaft away from the hole that your drilling and there's just enough room to get-ir-done
that's a great price one the shaft btw!
Such a score for $45, I had to drive to SLC to get it though. I didn't get the original lower part, the guy used it. But he gave me one from the Ifs unit he had also. It's small and would need an adapter to use, it has a huge range compared to the cruiser stuff. My short - sleeved cruiser part, slides on the spline and will work fine. I may clearance it a bit more, it gets close to the bolts that are mounting it to the flange. My cruiser piece could use a new U-joint though, the one it has isn't original. It say USA on it. Any advice on a good replacement for it, anyone?
There is just no real good way to grab it on the mill as a whole unit. I really wanted to keep it whole, not cut apart, and mount it to the t.case. I could see where it binds in my travel, and figure how it needs to be built. I said before that there wasn't much room for error, I was wrong. I had only compared the two flanges, and the Holes looked larger than they actually were. I measured it with calipers and decided it wasn't worth tearing down. The holes are about .045" smaller than the cruiser stuff. And the 11mm bolts were only .025" bigger than the holes in the mini part. So there is about .020" slop there in the factory cruiser parts. I just did it by hand, it was painful but it's done.
I used a big Milwaukee 1/2 chuck hand drill, it has serious torque, and a table mounted vise. I went slow, I did it after midnight, so it helped trying to be quiet. Offset the driveline away from the hole you are working on for clearance. If you go slow and use a round file, with several drill bits you can keep it accurate doing it by hand. I used 5 bits ranging from 3/8"-7/16", using the previous bit, and file to clean it out and clear each stage. If it binds from the drill bit cutting too much, back it out, and file the burrs out. Go back in and drill a little more, and repeat filing as needed. Take your time, and it will come out good. Stub(short) length bits are best, if it bites it can suck you in like a screw. If that happens you could hit the rest of the joint behind. You could possibly damage the cardan, the hole your clearancing out, and even break the bit. Jobber(longer) length will work you'll just need to be more careful, and aware of it. Also try to hold the drill square in relation to the flange, straight holes are good. My holes ended up really good, even doing it injured! It slid right on the studs and is actually about .010" tighter in each hole that what my cruiser stuff measured!
Thats how I did it, I would NOT advise trying to just drill it in one shot. Even on a mill or a drill press, the bit will chatter and wander. You wont be accurate, it's with out a doubt best to do it in stages. Use the round file and make each drill bit do as little cutting as possible, GO SLOW. A 7/16" drill bit measures .4375, my cruiser flange was .448", the 11mm bolt was like .430". It is not metric, but will give you a little room for error. That way you can clean it out (if needed) with the round file. I would NOT use a larger bit than 7/16", especially doing it by hand. The flange on the mini stuff is much smaller than the cruiser parts. You want to leave as much material behind as possible, mine looks sick, and perfectly strong. GOOD LUCK
