i have a 84 pickup sa and it didnt have a front drive shaft. i found an 80 front ds but the holes on the flanges are different. i plan on putting new u-joints in. can i use the 80 shaft and the 84 flanges? is that possible?

turn the flange 45 degrees and drill new holes

i pressed mine together with it 45 off and sprayed paint through the bolt holes and then center punched them and drilled in a press. the inner ring on the flange centeres the dshaft so it will be pretty easy take your time and save money not buying a new flange

well i have the 84 front drive shaft but where the splines are it wiggles and makes it vibations....so if i took the flanges off that one and put it on the 80 front ds will they fit? i have also been told just to drill out the hole from 10mm to 12mm is that the same as turning it 45 degress? im not worried about the money part i just want it done correctly and not have any more problems with it.. the guy and the junk yard told me 200 for a 84 drive shaft and at another yard i was told 50 for the 80s drive shaft

Are the holes lining up, but they're too small to fit the bolts? If so then yeah, just drill the holes out to whatever size they need to be. The only reason to drill new holes in the pinion flange would be because the holes don't line up.

On the other question, yes, AFIAK. The u-joint flanges should be swappable. What I've found is that all 79-95 Toyota truck/4Runner driveshafts use the same size u-joints, front and rear, 2WD or 4WD.

so if i sawp the falnges, they will work? thats all i really wanna know?
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Now, I don't wanna go and make any promises. But that's worked for me on a number of occassions, with various different Toyota pickup driveshafts. I'm not sure which years they all were. But that didn't seem to matter, 4cyl or V6 didn't matter, front or rear didn't matter. They all had the same sized u-joints at the flanges. It can be a real PITA removing them, especially the well aged ones like yours. So that's why I I'd really hate to tell you to go ahead and try it, and then have you find out it was a waste of time because they won't fit. Maybe try measuring them before you do, and see if they even look close enough to the same. Like the widths of the yokes and the diameters of the spider bearing caps.