Project Big Red

[FORDF250HDXLT]

The mad scientist is still hard at it! Time's a tickin' now Mike! lol.

 

[DaveBen]

Aren't the slip joints supposed to be at the upper part of the shaft? Rocks play hell with them.

 

[laserjock]

Aren't the slip joints supposed to be at the upper part of the shaft? Rocks play hell with them.

Probably. It should fit either way.

 

[tbrumm]

On the factory F350, the slip joint is down by the axle because the double cardan joint is up by the t-case.

 

[laserjock]

On the factory F350, the slip joint is down by the axle because the double cardan joint is up by the t-case.

I thought that's what I had seen when I was looking at driveshafts. Either way, I think it will be fine.

 

[IDIoit]

all 3 of my 4x's have the slip yoke on the diff side, and cardans at the transfer

 

[DaveBen]

OK, Thanks guys.

 

[laserjock]

So tonight's activities.

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Broke the shaft down. I called a place in town. $150 for a cut and balance more or less while I wait. I can live with that. I figured while I was at it I'd ask what it would cost for them to put the joints and carrier bearing in. [emoji15] I nearly choked. Okay. I'll take care of that part. The sobs fought me all the way. Ended up cutting off the carrier bearing. Puller and heat wouldn't touch it. Warped my puller. Any way, its drying waiting for joints tomorrow and then I'll take it Friday for a cut and balance. The down side is, I will have to have them put a carrier bearing in too because it's not the standard ford size. So Amazon will get that back when I get a chance. It's 1-3/8" I believe where as factory was 1.5 something.

Anyway. 11:15 and I'm painting outside in the dark with the wind blowing. I'm sure they will look awesome.

 

[laserjock]

Yep. 1 am. I'm pressing in universal joints. *** is wrong with me?

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Anyway, second snafu. The damn transmission yoke takes a bigger joint than a standard 1330. So now I guess I'm buying a conversion joint, a carrier bearing and a cut and balance. The yoke that came with the shaft is 1330 all around but the slip section wasn't quite as nice as mine. Damn ford and there better ideas.

 

[Dieselcrawler]

I always try to run my slip joint at the axle. Rather have a rock hit the solid chunk of metal than dent the tube, but my stuff sees way different abuse than you guys. My wheeler actually has the front shaft flipped around so slip is at tcase. Needed the clearance at the cross member, the smaller diameter of the slip clears perfect. But my front shaft tube is 3/8 thick so not really concerned

 

[pafixitman]

Dang Mike! I thought you would be doing that today when you told me you were getting it cut Friday. Do you ever sleep??

 

[laserjock]

Ha. Sleep. Yeah. Those were the days. Where the place is located is a pita to get to so I figured rather than making two trips in a day, I'd spread the pain. I'll see if I can get it dropped off today and retrieved tomorrow.

 

[laserjock]

Today's effort.

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Front shaft broken down, cleaned and painted. I dropped the rear shaft off to be cut down and the guy hits me with, your slip joint is bad. Huh?? It looks brand new to me. Clamps it in vice and sure enough it wiggles. Well damn. He says it should have had the plastic coating on it and it looked like someone had stripped it off. I have no idea. So because I needed a carrier bearing ($80 installed) and crossover joint ($40 installed) for the yoke. If you add that to my original $150 for cut and balance you are now at $270. To solve the problem, we decided to cut the spline shaft off and replace it to keep from having to touch the other half. The total was $300 for the job so for $30 I get a new spline shaft. I guess I can live with that. This brings the total to $400 to solve the $800 problem. If only they all had been like that. Anyway, supposed to be ready in the morning.

In other news, I realized that I had forgotten the shifter gate for the tcase. So off the shifter came and back on with the plate. Need another bolt and that will be done.

I had a moment thinking through the electrical and it occurred to me the speed sensor wasn't plugged in. Plugged it in and the RABS light went out.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a full driveline.

 

[laserjock]

Alrighty. So close to having a complete drive line. Picked up driveshaft. It fits perfect. I'll snap a pic when I tighten the nuts on the carrier bearing. These guys seem to have done a decent job. Said he had to straighten the rear tube a touch and I see a tell tale heat spot on the front one two. But it has a fresh spline shaft with blue coating and carrier bearing. I had a heck of a time getting the slip joint together. Man is it tight. Like I said fit seems perfect. So I turned attention to the front. I needed to put the new nut on and torque the pinion nut. Couldn't get enough oomph on it without moving the truck. Hmm. So here is the torque wrench and multiplier.

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I jacked it up so I could set the rotation of the nut. Then used my truck bed load shift bar to hold the brake.

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Ratcheted right down. Broke it over at like 265 ft lbs. spec is 240-300. Lick of paint on the yoke and call it good.

Assembled the front shaft.

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It's ready to go in. Just need to figure out what freaking straps I need for the yoke I changed out on the front. I've tried twice and struck out. That's all I lack of having a complete driveline.

 

[F350camper]

That's all I lack of having a complete driveline.

You can just leave it like that like @subway . You guys could start a truck club called "the missing shaft"