ChristianEwing
Member
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2023
- Messages
- 24
- Reaction score
- 46
- Points
- 13
- Location
- San Diego
- Vehicle Year
- 1993
- Make / Model
- Ford Ranger
What's up guys, I am in the process of building a 2WD 1993 Ford Ranger, it has the 4.0 OHV and the 5-speed M5R1 trans behind it. The tail housing the transmission comes with factory is a slip yoke style setup that allows the driveshaft to be a solid one-piece shaft, and all the slip is happening at the yoke in the tail housing. I am trying to convert that setup to a fixed yoke on the trans and have a new driveshaft built with the slip built into the shaft instead. The reason is the truck I'm building is a very purpose-built go fast off-road truck with a 4-link suspension, pulling 25" of wheel travel, and I'm worried that with that amount of travel (especially at full droop) it's going to be putting a lot of weird stress on the tail housing with the factory slip setup it currently has at the yoke and it's gonna end up grenading itself. With the slip in the driveshaft instead, it can keep everything more happy and is very common in the go-fast off-road world.
Current problem...I pulled the slip yoke off the factory drive shaft and popped the copper plug off the end of it to expose the splined section of the yoke. I planned to machine down a 1.25" long steel slug that goes into the end of the splined section of the slip yoke that I'd drill a hole in the center of for a bolt to run through and then tig weld it into place so that the slug bottomed out on the end of the output shaft when the yoke was fully slid on (the idea is to not allow the yoke to go towards the trans any further so it does not destroy the tail housing seal) and then I was going to drill a hole in the center of the tail housing that I could tap for a 3/8" bolt to hold the yoke onto the output shaft and not allow it to slip in and out of the tail housing anymore. That's all fine and dandy and would in theory work great, BUT the output shaft is hardened steel and I can not get a drill bit to go into it to save my life. I have all the good bits, but I just do not have the tools here to make it happen. My only real option is to take this tail housing off and take it to a machine shop to have them drill and tap it for me and I don't want to deal with them if I don't have to.
My question is now that I've gotten into the weeds with this, did any of these M5R1 transmissions come with a fixed yoke tail housing setup factory from any other year or model vehicle that I can just source and buy that bolts on? I don't know much about these manual trans since I do not typically use them for these applications, I usually deal with TH400's for the trucks I build and they have aftermarket bolt-on fixed yoke tail housings options you can buy for them. What makes the issue worse, is this truck is a single cab and there is no carrier bearing or option to add a carrier bearing into the equation. If I could add one I'd just leave the slip in the yoke and add the slip into the main shaft on the two-piece driveshaft but I do not have that as an option and the tail housing needs to have a fixed yoke to work for my specific application
Current problem...I pulled the slip yoke off the factory drive shaft and popped the copper plug off the end of it to expose the splined section of the yoke. I planned to machine down a 1.25" long steel slug that goes into the end of the splined section of the slip yoke that I'd drill a hole in the center of for a bolt to run through and then tig weld it into place so that the slug bottomed out on the end of the output shaft when the yoke was fully slid on (the idea is to not allow the yoke to go towards the trans any further so it does not destroy the tail housing seal) and then I was going to drill a hole in the center of the tail housing that I could tap for a 3/8" bolt to hold the yoke onto the output shaft and not allow it to slip in and out of the tail housing anymore. That's all fine and dandy and would in theory work great, BUT the output shaft is hardened steel and I can not get a drill bit to go into it to save my life. I have all the good bits, but I just do not have the tools here to make it happen. My only real option is to take this tail housing off and take it to a machine shop to have them drill and tap it for me and I don't want to deal with them if I don't have to.
My question is now that I've gotten into the weeds with this, did any of these M5R1 transmissions come with a fixed yoke tail housing setup factory from any other year or model vehicle that I can just source and buy that bolts on? I don't know much about these manual trans since I do not typically use them for these applications, I usually deal with TH400's for the trucks I build and they have aftermarket bolt-on fixed yoke tail housings options you can buy for them. What makes the issue worse, is this truck is a single cab and there is no carrier bearing or option to add a carrier bearing into the equation. If I could add one I'd just leave the slip in the yoke and add the slip into the main shaft on the two-piece driveshaft but I do not have that as an option and the tail housing needs to have a fixed yoke to work for my specific application