Hey everyone,
I'm currently building a custom frame and what not for my 85 pickup Xtra cab. I have the 22RE with a 5spd 4x4. My question is, would putting in a straight drive shaft instead of one with a berring carrier give me more torqe to the rear wheels? Improve performance and or power of the truck? I know it is about 3" shorter coming out of an automatic 4x4 truck then the one with the carrier in it. I would simply move my leaf mounts forward to make up for the length diff. It is custom so I can do what I like at this point yet in the build. Any imput or advice would be great! Thanks!

 

Won't be any more or less torque to the rear wheels with or without the center carrier bearing.

 

What are your thoughts on center of gravity and wheel base being changed? Not enough to make any differance I would assume. I know the box may not line up correctly over the wheels as well but come spring time when it gets nice out I may do a reverse bob on it to bring it up where it would line up with the axle again.

 

As 4Crawler said, the power/torque will be the same. Think about it - where is that power gonna go?

How are you going to use the truck?

If you're going to put some miles on it, the carrier bearing is just another thing to wear out IMHO.

Personally, I would go with a CV type driveshaft with the rear axle tilted up to point at the tcase.

 

I wasent sure if with that carrier in their it may take away a small amount of tourqe with flex in the rubber carrier portion of it?.... The truck is going to be a DD but also a "mudslut" on the weekends. Im in Iowa so theirs no crawling in my near future... It will be lifted over stock. The frame I have built and used for the rear will lift it around 2-3" itself + AAL in the front. Also a 3" body lift, and 33's.

Another question/comment...
I am thinking, I am going to go with the shorter Automatic shaft so if the Manual ever gos out I can throw in the Auto with no mods needed down the road. My Questions, (thanks for your help) If I put in the auto drive shaft im wondering with the "slip" or "sleeve" in it, how should I set it up as far as how much should it be in or out? Should I just put it in at the ajustment it is at right now in the stock truck? Will it slide in and out with the lift I have and evrything with out coming apart or smashing down? How exactly does that work, is it just for the up/down of the axle? How much is their to work with?




THANK YOU SOOO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP!

 

The rubber surrounding the carrier bearing is mainly to dampen vibration, does not transmit any torque.

Generally want to leave around 1"-1.5" of slip travel in back:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...l#Introduction

Depends somewhat on how much travel your rear springs have, especially up-travel from the normal ride height.

 

The rear springs are stock with an AAL. so not much up travel over stock...

 

"you should probably have 1" to 1-1/2" of rear shaft slip yoke compression length."

Could you elaborate for me? Pehaps im just not understanding the obvious but I just dont understand what they are trying to say in this statement......

 

That is how much travel you have in the slip yoke (the thingy in the middle of the shaft that extends and contracts) before the shaft bottoms out. Or in other words, if you fully compressed the shaft and measured the length and then pulled it apart 1" - 1.5" that would be the installed length.

 

Thank you very much!
Do you think I can take it out of the Automatic and bolt it up to the Manual trany, (leaving it the way it is) then bring up the rear end to it, bolt it up, and make my front leaf spring mounts on the frame and weld it all up that way?

 

You would need to measure and see if it'll fit.

 

I guess you could, but put the axle where you want it, then modify the driveshaft as necessary to fit. The axle needs to be PERFECTLY square to the frame - measure 1000000x and weld once!

Otherwise, you're doing all the hard work to make a relatively cheap part work!

 

I got it all figured out and I'll post some pics too....