Front driveshaft reinstall - 98 ranger

[skinner]

Hey guys, it's been a while, but winter is back upon me and I need to tackle getting the front driveshaft back in finally. I had replaced the clutch and bolted everything back in except the front driveshaft, and found reinstalling it an exercise in frustration and cusswords. It's the style that has the UJoint on the front axle and a CV style with ball bearings on the front of the tcase. The problem being, I can't get the tcase side back in. I feel like a lot of the problem is clearence, it seems I can only really go at it at an angle, and when I go to force it in all the balls go flying, I cuss, rinse and repeat.
So, anyone have any pointers or good advice here? Does the front flange need to come off the axle for clearence or can it be installed with everything else intact?
Thanks for any help at all....I'd hate to take it to the shop for the first time but I don't know how much more abuse I can take!

 

[BRUTUS_T_HOG]

ball bearings? pictures of your situation would help

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Put the T case side in first and bolt up the constant velocity joint, then compress the shaft and put the front u joint into the yoke of the front differential.

 

[skinner]

ok, thanks for replying! What I have is shown at top of this picture, taken from this website -
http://i29.tinypic.com/mi3191.jpg

However, mine does not have the 'bulb' on the end(top shaft, right end), what I have now out of the truck just has the knob like gear and rubber shroud/bolt plate. I've been trying to slide the gear, with ball bearings and race, into that bulb which is still on the tcase. Basically, the setup looks vaguely similar to this picture when disassembled -
http://image.4wdandsportutility.com...06_z+driveshaft_basics+rzeppa_joint_parts.jpg

Which i've found to be called a Rpezza joint. However, in that picture, the piece on the lower right is still on the tcase, and that piece, rather than being rather thin and open as shown, it looks more like a 1 piece enclosed cup. Does this 'cup' need to be removed from the tcase as well? How is it removed if so? I know i'm making this much harder than it should be, but i've never worked on such a setup before.

Thanks!

 

[Buggyman]

Funny thing is, I have the exact same problem with the same year truck and I am stuck exactly where you are. I put a new motor in my truck and I had an extra T case with a shaft and everything, and I found that when you give that housing at the T case that the shaft slides into a hard wack, it pops off and you can work on putting everything back together on a bench and not on your back on the ground. The problem comes to putting it all back together and its a pain in the butt getting it back in and when I did, my shaft was about 3/4" too long after 4 hours of screaming and beating on it.

Let me know how it goes, I have yet to figure it out.

 

[Chance]

Wait... so when it was taken out... you or whoever did it just didn't pull out the 8 bolts holding it onto the cup on the t-case?

Well... something went wrong. I'd pull the 8 bolts on the bulb out, pull it off your t-case and try to put the driveshaft back together on the workbench.

 

[cbc24]

hey would any of you guys know what years those drive shafts are interchange able? i got a 98 and incorrectly put the front drive shaft together and it fcked it up now i gotta get a front drive shaft. mine went in easy.. slide the front part in and push it'll give enough room to slide the front u joints together. or it should anyways. please help thanks