Rear driveshaft - regular cab short bed

[DRanger024]

Ok so I picked up an extended cab ‘97 B4000 4x4 5-speed to do a 4wd/4.0 swap on my ‘94 2.3 5-speed 2wd regular cab short bed Ranger. Since the regular cab short bed 4x4 trucks seem to be about as rare as hens teeth around here and I’ll need a rear driveshaft, I’m wondering if the rear shaft out of an Explorer will work or even come close for that matter? Plenty of Explorers in the bone yards here.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Explorer will be longer than a SWB truck.

 

[4x4junkie]

Yeah, you're kinda in between sizes there (a 2-door Ex shaft would be too short).

My suggestion if you can't find what you need:
Get ahold of one that is too long (the 4-door Ex shaft for example), and then have a driveline shop shorten & rebalance it for you. A decent shop shouldn't charge much more than $100 I'm thinking. Note you probably won't get a double-cardan CV at the t-case end if you go this route though, which a factory SWB shaft would have (you could have the shop retube a front driveshaft to be longer, but this will likely be a bit more $$$).
The last option is have one made for you from scratch, but this of course would be the most $$$ option.

 

[DRanger024]

Well eventually I’d like the truck on 33’s so shortening a supercab shaft probably won’t work with some lift under it. I guess that pretty much narrows it down. I wouldn’t mind saving all the work and just driving the Mazda but the body is pretty well shot.

 

[adsm08]

I agree with Junkie. The one machine shop I used to deal with at my last job would shorted and balance a shaft for $50.

 

[DRanger024]

For the cost of a brand new rear shaft, I’m going to go that route. Then I know exactly what I have; a true, balanced, vibe free shaft. I’m going to daily the thing to work and back and live pretty far out in the boonies of central Wisconsin so I need the thing to be reliable and as un-annoying as possible. It will occasionally see some mud and two tracks but I really need capable four wheel drive for the ridiculous winter roads.