Reinstalling front output shaft... What am I doing wrong??

[Buggyman]

I am trying to reinstall the front output shaft on my 98' Ranger. Its hard to explain everything, but there is a "cup" that bolts onto the transfer case, this cups has balls that are held in place by a wire holder, the drive axle slides between these balls and is bolted to the transfer case. I assembled everything carefully on the bench and have the drive axle seated and all the little balls look like they are aligned right. When I go to install it, I do not have enough room to bolt the front part up, the shaft appears to be too long by less than a half inch. I tried putting a jack under the front of the shaft and raising it up beside where it bolts onto the front end and then putting the six bolts in that hold the cup into the t case hoping it would take up the free space, but still cannot get it to bolt up. Also when I had it bolted to the T case the shaft when strait out and it seemed to be about 3 inches above where it bolts onto the front end and would not budge.

I know its hard to describe, so any help would be great, I spent three hours last night busting my knuckles up and made no progress and was ready to start throwing wrenches. Just FYI: the T case is an electric BW 1354 and the truck is a 98' Ranger 3.0 4x4 manual with a 2000 3.0 motor and transmission, but the t case is the 98'.

Thanks!

 

[wvcat]

They are a PITA!!! I went thru this a while back when I had to reassemble the ball and cage assembly. Even when assembled properly you have to slide the front yoke in from the side. Sounds like the balls & cage are not all the way together.

 

[AllanD]

A)You have installed the CV-joint BACKWARDS and it won't telescope sufficiently.

B)You are instaling a different driveshaft that the one you took out and someone screwed up...

There are are some variations in transmission length and that affects the front driveshaft length... so it's possible you got a longer shaft that simply doesn't fit your truck.

AD