THE SANDMAN

I just recently got a parts car which is a 82' z28 and i took the driveshaft out becasue i thought it would fit my car with the th350. The car has a th350 in it with the same tailshaft housing i have yet it doesn't fit because it is an inch too long.Please help.

ede

if it's an inch too long then it needs to be an inch shorter, looks like you answered your own question. funny thing is the stupid drive shaft has you out smarted.

THE SANDMAN

That is an obvious answer to my question but what i really want to know is why it fits on the Z28 with the 350 and th350 but won't fit on mine with the 350 and the th350?

F-BIRD'88

Was yor car a V6 engine swap? The motor/trans may be mounted
farther back than it should be.

THE SANDMAN

My car was originally equipped with a 305.

flotsamm

IT could be that the splines on the output shaft are longer on your transmission then the other. I had this problem recently and had to cut my slip yoke about an 1 3/8" off using a hacksaw. Keep in mind that if you do shorten your yoke to make sure that you have atleast 3/4" of slip for the driveshaft to move freely as the rear axle moves. You could also take it to a driveline shop or have a new one installed. Good luck.

87_TA

TH350's CAME W/ 3 different lengths of tailshafts.
A 200 trans is same length as a short shaft 350 so you can get your drive shaft from a v6 car if you want.

kevinc

Considering the '82 parts car is 20 years old, it's possible a previous owner upgraded to a TH700 trans. Anyone buys my '82 thinking it still has the 305 and TH200C trans is in for a big surprise.

I don't get the "please help" part of this...help do what? It don't fit, no matter how much typing and clicking everyone does it won't fit.

ede

i wouldn't be cutting the yoke, i'd take a inch out of the drive shaft

flotsamm

I'm curious, whats wrong with cutting the yoke down an inch? I did mine this way and it seems fine. The way it was explained to me is that the yoke would have less tendency to be thrown out of balance then the driveshaft since its more centered. Not sure now..

ede

the yoke is designed to have X amount of contact area and to be able to slide a set amount and still maintain a set amount of spline engagement, if you cut it you have that much less. cut the drive shaft tube is the only correct way to shorten a drive shaft. tell me how it would become out of balance if you shortened it? as long as you index it there isn't any big trick to doing it.

flotsamm

On my output shaft from my original tranny it had roughly 6" of splined area. The rebuilt tranny I got had only 5" of splined area. I wasnt about the try to cut the output shaft so I cut the yoke. My logic(correct me if I'm wrong here) was that if 5" was good enough for my application since it came that way from GM.

When trying to find a fix, I called a few driveline shops that they said I could either cut the yoke, have the driveshaft shortened or get a shorter yoke installed. Dana from Probuilt and the driveline shop both said that it would be easier and shouldnt cause any problems which I can atest to. As long as I cut the yoke as straight as possible it should be fine. Again this would be the same thing as installing a shorter yoke.


For me it was more economical and quicker to just cut the yoke. It has the same spline contact patch except in a 5" config. It may not be the proper way but it seems to work fine, and I didnt have to spend the money and a couple of days without vehicle at a driveline shop.

87_TA

Wow,you cut it with a hacksaw?
How long did that take?

flotsamm

Yup used a hacksaw. I measured it a couple of times to make sure I had the right amount to take off then stuffed a rag inside the yoke. I took some masking tape and taped a line where I needed to make the cut. Took about 15 minutes with a shapr blade. Afterwards I beveled the edge with a file to smooth out the roughness and then used some emery cloth to remove any burrs. I removed the rag and cleaned it out with some solvent and viola! hehe

ATOMonkey

How long do you need?

http://www.musclemotorsports.com/dri...eel--used.html

THE SANDMAN

Thanx Alot for all the replies. I got my old one cut by some trucking company. I needed it to be 45 in.