Front 4x4 shaft question...

[Buggyman]

Hey folks,

I removed my front 4x4 shaft when I put a new motor in my 98' Ranger and I cannot get it back in for the life of me. When I took it out, all the ball bearings fell out and I have removed the cup they slide into and trying to reassemble it on the work bench so I am not working upside down in the cold. I have gotten everything back together and have managed to get the balls and the shaft back into the cup, but its very stiff. When I go to reinstall it, it needs to articulate about two inches down to allow me to bolt the shaft to the front diff. Anyone have a clue about how to reinstall this thing? Perhaps a simpler question, how much movement is this shaft supposed to have? Is it supposed to be stiff or is it supposed to articulate up and down when its installed?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Fx4wannabe01]

Number 1: how in the hell did you disassemble your shaft when you removed it? Why'd you remove the shaft in the first place....don't need to be removed for just a engine swap.

Number 2: the CV joint in the front shaft has fallen apart and to me, sounds like that joint needs a rebuild or a new shaft is needed. When you take the shaft out, it doesn't just fall apart...comes out in one piece. Your joint was effed and judging by your '220k miles', that just about solves it for me.

3: getting it in is pretty easy....I usually have the ujoint on the ground then get the tcase side in it's general area. I like to place the pinion side in it's yoke and run the bolts, then turn the tcase output til the holes line up and bolt it in.

 

[Buggyman]

I worked on it today and managed to figure out and reassembled my CV joint and everything is now working flawlessly.

1. I removed my entire motor and transmission and swapped it with a new one from the donor truck, so the shaft had to come out.

2. I did not know how to disassemble the shaft from the T case and the cup was tightly adhered to the T case and took a few taps from a hammer to remove it after I removed the entire shaft. I was able to slide the boot back and slide out the balls with a screwdriver and remove the shaft after I loosened it from the front.

PM me if anyone needs a more detailed explanation and I can take some pictures of a spare shaft, there is a trick to getting the balls back in and allowing the shaft to move and articulate like it should.