Thread: 87 Ram 50 Engine Swap

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I’ve been collecting up the parts to send up to the drive shaft shop. There used to be a local shop I used, but like so many of the small businesses I’ve used since I moved out here 20 years ago, the owner retired and there was no one who wanted/was capable of taking over the business.

Although I really didn’t want to, I did contemplate building my own drive shaft. I’ve built 3 or 4 in the past and actually had good luck doing it, but I’m really not set up for it but I figured out how do it in a pinch if I have to.

I did some asking around and there is a place up in Tucson I’m going to be giving a try, I’ve heard a few good things about his work. I talked to the owner on the phone and liked what I heard, so we’ll see. I’m really curious to see his set up for balancing. It’s been a looong time since I’ve had a drive shaft balanced. What I’m used to being is just the shaft without joints or yokes being spun up. He apparently sets it up with the U-joints and yokes to do the balancing so I’m wondering what his fixtures and readout setup looks like.

While I was figuring out what to do about the drive shaft, I started getting the parts ready. Fortunately, the shaft doesn’t have to be built from scratch. The original shaft (lower one in the picture) is too long now and needs to be shortened past where the shaft tapers down for the small joint.



The upper shaft in the picture is the same OD as the Ram 50 and was the donor for the weld in yoke. You might notice how it’s all cleaned up and painted. I can’t recall what project I prepped it for, but I do remember I was in a bit of a hurry when I did it and didn’t pay enough attention when I cleaned, painted, installed the U Joints and installed it in the car. I paid a lot more attention when I was tracking down the vibration the car had when I got it on the road. It only took a second when I was back under the car to realize that the when the factory built the shaft somehow they got the yokes 45 degrees out of phase with each other.

Anyway. I cut the weld off the shaft and got one of the yokes off which is correct to use with the T5 slip yoke. So here’s the pile of parts going up to Tucson next week.




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