I’m thinking I might take a video to try and explain it better. I’ll try to cover this though in the mean time. Frame and brackets look perfect. Dirty and greasy but perfect. The only thing bent is the top and bottom of the drivers beam where the broken pieces whacked it but beam is still straight. At some point I’ll straighten that and reinforce it, but it’s not my problem with axle shaft fit and I feel pretty confident about saying that.
I’m not saying the shaft popped out, I’m saying it was bottomed out at ride height and when I unloaded the suspension under 4lo and a heavy boot which tried to compress the shaft that was already bottomed, something had to break. Couple full circle clips from my U-joints were missing after it all and I had a catastrophic failure of a U-joint. I may want to pull the stub and shine a light into the diff and see if I mangled the cross pin at all. The slip joint section was so firmly stuck to the outer passenger shaft that I drove around like that for a bunch and when I went to fix things here, I had to beat it off with a hammer.
Beams were reinforced but no cut and turn. James Duff axle pivot drops, 3” JD coils and F-150 spring perches. I built the extended arms and pushed the axle forward slightly with them, but not enough to cause any problems. I didn’t count splines, but it does fit like it’s supposed to and I measured how far the stub sticks out of the diff on my stock 92 and comparing those measurements to my Choptop, they are identical. Stub and slip joint were together in my shed with a less than stellar U-joint, so I knocked it out and put a new U-joint in. I used to never mark anything because I knew what was what, but now post concussions, I’m regretting not marking things, but I’m pretty confident I have the correct parts.
In the pic, the suspension is close to ride height. It will actually probably fit slightly better at ride height only because the beams tend to creep in when you jack the vehicle up on any TTB. But, if I blocked the frame and let the suspension sag down, that axle shaft would have to be shorter not to bottom out (since it’s already bottomed out), because the end of the beam would move in an arc that as it drops away from the frame, the shaft has to get shorter. I’m suspecting the U-joint caps spun (I have evidence of that through the entire passenger side assembly and a little on the drivers side) and the caps didn’t fit really tight in any of the yoke holes. I tacked the caps in this time to eliminate that potential problem.
AYE....gotcha.
now that makes perfect sense...i was under the impression you popped it apart while driving it. and since what you pictured looked perfectly correct to me...i knew it had to be a shorter shaft for that to happen while driving...and i know exactly where in this cycle where it can be possible....and even that, with proper spacing and unmodded beams, it has proven impossible as far as i have experimented..but possible once you mod beams or cut the shaft.
the d35 shaft is 19.9. so that is an easy check......certain left hand side d44 shafts are like 18.x....but the slip yoke on these d35 and the other traction beam fullsize trucks are 31 spline...so a normal 30 spline and 31 spline slip shouldn't play well together...thats fact it glides right together tells me its most likely correct.
dont cut the shaft. or it will want to bind or blow apart in certain situations.
and i have failed these slip shafts with v8 power...lockers and big tires.
you have to remember....my ranger has a d60 from the amount of failures i was having with my ARB equipped 8.8 rear diff....
i had to do something to upgrade my rear axle and since the d35 parts supply was rapidly dwindling... i just swapped in the axles i had that were on deck to convert my E350 powerstoke to 4x4.
i had a high travel d35...with 17 in of tire stroke...depending on how i had it setup. and i loved it. i broke it all the time...but they are so easy to work on....i didnt care until parts scavenging became an issue. i still want to run MOAB with that style setup...and the rubicon just to see.
there are a few ways to do the spring c clip eliminator as i am sure you are aware. external and internal.
internal relies on retention of the plug in the slip shaft...
there is a plug in the slip shaft....normal people are not going to ever know that. idiots like me could find out about the mangled ass plug the first or second time we air out the truck and broke a shock........back in the day....i may have done that on a test drive.
so ...perfectly normal looking drop brackets often allow enough movement, especially with soft springs and long travel shocks to max out on the plug with no spring, let alone with a spring inside....these usually self delete the plug....then you can just get a heavier longer spring with a smaller diameter and make a copper cap saddle critter with pipe so it always rides against the ujoint body if you want...or just let it ride raw....
the limit i found was due to the shaft wanting to murder the ujoint....after windowing the beam for more down travel, was a bit over 17 inches with uncut beams...save for the window clearancing... and where i stopped.
so. thats the long way of saying your just fargin fine.... put it together and go get crazy with it...
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