Drive shaft swap

[Alyeska]

Hello there,

I have two bronco 2s, one is an 88, with a working engine, the other is an 84 with a blown engine. THe 88 droped its drive shaft. THe 84 threw a rod. THe 84 is an automatic, the 88 is a 5speed overdrive manual. I was wondering if I can swap out the driveshaft from the 84 to the 88. Or if it would be usable to snag one at a boneyard. Or if I would find it nessicery to get a new one.

Please note, the engine leaks oil, had some one who really had little idea what thay where doing working on it. For starters, you start it by touching two wires togeather. I was going to take the steering wheel assimbly off the 84 and transfur that over, and a few other things, and probably in the spring yang the engine out and give it a good going over. BUt, I need the thing road worthy asap cause I gotta run a few k miles with it before I can stop and pull the engine. THe oil leaks look to mostly be from the valve covers, easy enough to deal with, and I might just live with it tell I get a chance to rebuild. Important thing is, how much stuff from the 84 can I use in the 88?

Thanks in advance,
Alyeska

 

[heptofite]

if the automatic is the A4 with overdrive, the shafts will fit, if it's a three speed, it'll require you to shorten the shaft.

 

[Alyeska]

Will check, its got the older cv joints in the driveshaft, the one the 88 had was some weird thing with a ball type joint and big rubber boots. I think the fellow hit a rock pretty hard. Someone had spent some money on this thing beforehand, so its kinda sad to see it in the shape it is in now. I got the tools and the time, so its not too big a deal for me to rebuild the engine later. Gotta get a drive shaft in it so I can drive it around first though. Got a couple big trips I gotta take, and the van only gets 8 miles a gal on the highway.

 

[adsm08]

Measure them. Hept might be right, but it depends on which trans is in the 88.

 

[Shran]

I believe most everything should swap over from the '84 - the only difference I know of in the steering column is the horn "button" is part of the blinker switch in the '84. I'd just swap the whole column. 2.9s are notorious for valve cover oil leaks so I'm sure you're right on there... and they're easy to change out unless you have air conditioning.

 

[adsm08]

If you do have leaky valve cover gaskets, get the rubber ones. 6 years double gasketed and still no leaks.