rear drive shaft slip yoke

[Lignite]

How much rear deflection can the rear drive shaft slip yoke take and still be reliable? Or how might I check this myself? For example, If one were to do the chevy spring swap without moving the front hangers, the rear axel would be displaced about 6 inches back (when springs are compressed), I'm assuming that is too much? Maybe an inch or two? Maybe none? And how does this fit in with lift potential (about 4" lift or so)? Trying to get the whole suspension picture, thanks for any information.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

You have to move the front hangers forward to do the chevy spring swap. Other side the rear tires will be pushed backwards 6" at ride height, and the shackle angle would be absolutely terrible, and probably bind up.

 

[Lignite]

Right, I understand that, it was just an example though. I'm sure I'm not being clear enough, I don't know the terminology very well.

According to my measurements, Chevy leaves are 64" (+/-) with centering hole centered at 32", Ranger leaves are 57" with centering whole offset at 26" inches. I understand the Chevy leaves won't work in stock front hanger as they are 6" different.

But say you had a spring that was 28" to centering hole, and 60" total length (just as an example). That would displace the rear axel about 2" backwards using the stock front hanger position. Would stock driveshaft still be able to function correctly? I'm also discounting the wheel wells, thinking they could be trimmed.

Or what about forward displacement? What if you had a spring that was 25" to centering whole, that would move the rear axel ~1" forward. Would the slip yoke have enough 'slip' in it to not bind up moving that much?

And then to really make things complicated, what about lift? Maybe the above scenarios work at stock ride height, but then no way could they work at 8" of lift. What about 4" of lift?

I'm sorry, these questions may be unanswerable without 'just doing it'. But I'm trying to get the total rear suspension picture in my head so I can be ready for an 8.8 swap I have coming up. Thanks for your time.

 

[4x4junkie]

The slip travel is only about 4" or so total. I wouldn't displace the axle more than an inch without correcting for it on the driveshaft, otherwise you stand the chance of it coming apart (or jamming the shaft through your transfercase) when the axle moves around on the leaf springs.