1 Piece rear driveshaft help

[KeaToN419]

I picked up a rear driveshaft from a 99 ranger to put on my 87, the rear flange on the axle is for a 3" bolt spacing and the shaft has a 2 3/4", i knew that was going to be an issue before i bought the driveshaft from reading on here but i cant seem to find the right part to fix this, i was just going to use the yoke from the 87 shaft on the 99 one but i can find the right conversion u joint to do so, 3 5/8 x 2 7/16 or something close to that, so is there a piece on the rear axle itself i can swap out?

 

[yodaman1151]

You might be able to get a yoke off the front of a rear shaft on a earlier explorer... I did one on my 87 out of a 98 ex-sport-trac but the u joints were larger than the earlier explorer. The machine shop I worked at, a machinist decided he could just make and adapter bout 3/4" thick, shaft bolts thread into the adapter and the axle bolts are countersunk into it. He even did it in metric so I could use all stock 12 point bolts Don't have pics but can take it out and get some if you really need it. Need to lock tite the axle bolts anyways

 

[KeaToN419]

You dont have to do that i get what you are saying, I appreciate it tho thank you. Seems like finding just a yoke is a task all to its self, all the yards here say they dont sell yokes. I imagine it makes it difficult to sell the rest of the driveshaft with no yokes. I found the part I need on Dennysdriveshafts.com. Should have looked there before posting but thank you again for the help.

 

[adsm08]

I've done this too. I stopped at my local driveline/machine shop with the driveshaft in hand and bought a duplicate of the FRONT flange which should have the proper bolt spacing. Don't screw around with conversion joints.

 

[87anger]

Ok so I know its an old thread but I figured I would post here instead of starting a new one.

So just to clarify: in order to do a 1 piece swap into a gen1 you have to swap in a FRONT flange for the 98+ shaft onto the rear of the shaft?
Can I just buy it from a auto parts store or will I have to special order it?

 

[AllanD]

the 1998-2000 one piece shaft has a small flange on the front and a large flange on the back

Most 2001-up have large flanges on BOTH ends of the driveshaft because ford found it easier to switch to a large flange on the rear output of the T-case.


The OTHER issue on a 1987 is that the transmission on the 4x4 (unless you have an automatic trans) is 2" shorter.



AD

 

[87anger]

the 1998-2000 one piece shaft has a small flange on the front and a large flange on the back

Most 2001-up have large flanges on BOTH ends of the driveshaft because ford found it easier to switch to a large flange on the rear output of the T-case.


The OTHER issue on a 1987 is that the transmission on the 4x4 (unless you have an automatic trans) is 2" shorter.



AD

Oh no that sucks.
So basically in order to do the one piece swap on my 87 I would have to swap flanges on one or both ends AND lengthen the shaft or get a new 1 made.
Does that sound about right?
Now that I think about it what flanges do 8.8s use on what years?
Because Im also doing an 8.8 swap (dont know the donor yet).