Thread: My driveshaft needs to be longer!

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On my 72 Chevy Nova I just swapped out my Turbo 350 trans and put in a powerglide but there's just one problem. The yoke that splines into the rear housing of my transmission only barley slides on the output shaft. Do they actually make longer aftermarket yokes for transmissions?

You will have to get a longer drive shaft & have a drive line co. shorten & balance it.

Don

I had the same problem and eventually found a longer yoke from a '90's pickup, that was longer, but first I cut one off and welded it to another. Sounds spooky, but if you do it on an old output shaft to line stuff up, it works! Grind and polish the weld good so it doesn't tear the seal all to hell.
I wouldn't try it if the rear portion didn't engage the spline, though. That's trusting the weld too much! And run a driveshaft hoop!

Personally, I've had very good luck finding the correct legnth drive shaft out of of other cars. It may take a while going through the drive shaft pile or crawling under cars at a wrecking yard, but it has generally paid off.

On a few occasions I have taken a longer shaft and cut it down myself with good results.

First I try to find a shaft a few inches longer than is needed. I look for a shaft that does not have balance weights welded to it (by doing this I've never needed to have it sent in to be balanced afterwards). First I scribe a straight line on the yolk and the shaft past where it's going to be shortened. Then I carefully grind the weld that hold the yolk to the shaft. When you remove the yolk, you will find that it's usually a stepped plug that fits into the drive shaft tube. I then cut the shaft to legnth using a roller type pipe cutter (they look alike a giant tubing cutter that most of us have in our tool box) if your friends with a plumber he might let you borrow his. This gives you a square shoulder for the yolk to sit in.

Tap the yolk into the tube using the scribe line to insure it's indexed properly, and insure it's square. Tack weld in 4 even spaces and chect to insure it's still square, then final weld it into the tube.

Originally posted by Mike P
Personally, I've had very good luck finding the correct legnth drive shaft out of of other cars. It may take a while going through the drive shaft pile or crawling under cars at a wrecking yard, but it has generally paid off.

On a few occasions I have taken a longer shaft and cut it down myself with good results.

First I try to find a shaft a few inches longer than is needed. I look for a shaft that does not have balance weights welded to it (by doing this I've never needed to have it sent in to be balanced afterwards). First I scribe a straight line on the yolk and the shaft past where it's going to be shortened. Then I carefully grind the weld that hold the yolk to the shaft. When you remove the yolk, you will find that it's usually a stepped plug that fits into the drive shaft tube. I then cut the shaft to legnth using a roller type pipe cutter (they look alike a giant tubing cutter that most of us have in our tool box) if your friends with a plumber he might let you borrow his. This gives you a square shoulder for the yolk to sit in.

Tap the yolk into the tube using the scribe line to insure it's indexed properly, and insure it's square. Tack weld in 4 even spaces and chect to insure it's still square, then final weld it into the tube.

did a lot of them that way mike, and never had one that needed bal.

never did one the way pope said, but i can see where it might work in a st. car, but i dont think i'd do it in a race car.

Thanks for your help and advice Mike I will definitley try that out.

A trick to cut the tube square is to wrap a piece of paper around it. Line up the paper and mark the cut, then use a hand hacksaw. Works for me!

I worked for Frank Wallace Driveshafts in San Francisco, and we would measure from the bottom of the cup on the differential yoke to the place where the yoke slides into the transmission to get the correct measurement of the shaft. The yoke should ride out of the transmission only about an inch or so, and there are yokes of different lengths. It's a trip how many other things people try to fix before realizing there problem is driveshaft related. A correct measurement will make finding a driveshaft as easy as hauling a tape measure to the parts yard, or you'll know what to ask for from a driveshaft shop.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I think going to the salvage yard with a tape measure seems to be the most logical thing to do.