Driveshaft on trans swap

[lone_ranger]

I am in the final stages of a multi-year project and I need some help with a driveshaft. Hopefully someone out there has the answer. I have a '97 ranger with a 4-banger which I bought with a blown transmission 3 years back. I got a donor truck ('94) with a manual transmission. I swapped the trans about 2 years back and got sidetracked so it just sat there. I needed to get a driveshaft to fit since they were different wheelbases. I am going to get one made at a local shop. I just need to know what kind of play there should be at the slip yoke in the back of the trans. I dont want to have it too long and it ends up binding under full suspension load. The wear marks on the driveshaft slip yoke are gone since its been sitting out 2 years and got rusty. I was thinking about 1" would be a good amount of play with all tires on the ground. Any thoughts?

 

[Kenneth S]

I always use 1"-1 1/2" (if the output shaft doesn't stick out past the seal on the tail housing) depending on the length of the yoke and how long the bushing is in the tail housing, ideally at ride hight the yoke should be running on the entire tail housing bushing while maintaing the 1"-1 1/2" but sometimes thats not possible, also (incase you don't know) when you measure how long your drive shaft needs to be make sure you measure it from center to center of the u-joints, that's the measurement a drive shaft shop will want.

 

[lone_ranger]

Thanks for the input. Hopefully I can get the driveshaft made this weekend and put this beast in motion for the first time. Will be nice to see it move under its own power for a change.

 

[TireIron]

what happened to the driveshaft for the 97? the 97 and 94 manual M5OD are identical outter housings so they have the same length and would use the same driveshaft. So the driveshaft that was on the 97 should still work with the 94 tranny.

 

[HareRazor]

Not if one truck was a shortbed, and the other was a long bed.

 

[Mark_88]

or a regular cab vs extended cab...I took my 2.3 motor and tranny from my regular cab and dropped it into an extended cab that had a 2.9 originally...had to try several different drive shafts (three) and finally had to have the rear flange cut and welded onto the shaft that fit the length...

but the slip yoke on mine has about 4 or 5 inches of play before it actually falls out...I ended up giving it about an inch play after finally getting all the right parts and installed...hope that's enough!

 

[TireIron]

but you should have a driveshaft for the 97 and one for the 94 right? use the same driveshaft that was in the truck originally, it doesnt matter that you swapped the transmission, they use the same engine and the driveshaft will work behind any of the transmissions. So if the 97 is a shortbed (or longbed) and thats what you swapped the transmission into, then continue to use the driveshaft that was originally in it behind the bad transmission.

 

[HareRazor]

2wd trucks use different drive shafts between the auto and manual. The auto drive shaft is a couple inches shorter. At least this was the case for my 91 2wd Ranger and my friends 95 2wd. The 4x4 uses the same drive shafts.

 

[TireIron]

yes well he didn't mention mention if one was an auto and one a manual, he only stated that the 9 he put into the 97 was an M5OD so...