Driveshaft shortening 101

[Joe Dillard]

I've barely had time to work on my junk lately since I've been working at a job out of town & only coming home for part of the weekends. Anyway, with the help of a couple friends, my Jeep recently received an Atlas 5.0. With this install I needed to shorten my front driveshaft ~2.25". Since I don't have time during the week to either bring it to a shop to do it and my local shops are closed over the weekends, I decided to give it a shot at shortening it myself.

After seeing and reading about what various folks have done over the years, and talking with chef - I decided to give it a go ahead & see how things turn out. Enough of my babbling, lets get on to the task at hand.

I started test fitting things by bolting the shaft up to the transfer case end & bungee cord it up for measuring purposes. As you can see, with the shaft completely compressed, I needed to trim back ~2.25".




I decided that it would be a good idea to scribe a couple marks along the length of the shaft so that when I welded things back into place, I would be attaching the shaft back in phase & hopefully not cause any weird harmonics.



Next I decided to use my chop saw & hack it off ~3" back from where the tube is welded to the slip.




I then chopped off ~2.25" of the long side of the tube.



I used my bench grinder and ground down a 45* angle from both ends of the tube so I could prep it for a butt weld. I used my portable workbench/ladder, portable vice, a couple c-clamps and a piece of angle iron to help align things.

Once things looked good, I started to spot weld the shaft together, then ran a few short beads.




The fit seems about as good as I could have hoped, especially with me being a driveshaft 101 newbie.


[/QUOTE]

[Daless2]

Good Morning Chief,

I must say you are a braver man then me!

Yet when I think about it after looking at your pictures and the steps you took, this isn?t so complex after all, when taken step by step.

Let us know how it works out from a balance perspective.

I appreciate you taking the time to document and share the steps you took. Next time I just might do it myself too!

Well done,

Frank

[Britain]

Nice, hope it holds up!

[Joe Dillard]

Thanks for the good morning Frank. Good evening to you.

I did take it for a "spin" (pun intended.) I drove it in 2wd hi, 2wd lo, 4wd lo, 4wd hi, and fwd lo. I did not drive it in fwd hi yet. I could detect no vibes in 4wd or fwd lo. I engaged my front hubs but didn't engage my ARB's.

What I intend to do is to take both of my driveshafts out & have 2 new ones made, then carry my current ones as spares.

I could have approached this in several different manners I suppose, but the way I did mine should be okay as a trail spare. Folks do trail repairs similar to the way I did mine fairly frequently.

There's a nice write-up of how another guy did his in the General 4x4 Discussion area of Pirate. I didn't do mine the same way he did, but it is a nice read. Here's the link:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=485542

Britain, Me too - or at least till I get 2 new shafts made & start carrying the ones in it now as spares.

[Britain]

Originally posted by Joe Dillard
Thanks for the good morning Frank. Good evening to you.

I did take it for a "spin" (pun intended.) I drove it in 2wd hi, 2wd lo, 4wd lo, 4wd hi, and fwd lo. I did not drive it in fwd hi yet. I could detect no vibes in 4wd or fwd lo. I engaged my front hubs but didn't engage my ARB's.

What I intend to do is to take both of my driveshafts out & have 2 new ones made, then carry my current ones as spares.

I could have approached this in several different manners I suppose, but the way I did mine should be okay as a trail spare. Folks do trail repairs similar to the way I did mine fairly frequently.

There's a nice write-up of how another guy did his in the General 4x4 Discussion area of Pirate. I didn't do mine the same way he did, but it is a nice read. Here's the link:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=485542

Britain, Me too - or at least till I get 2 new shafts made & start carrying the ones in it now as spares.

East County is doing my new rear. What u did, I may do the same to the old one for a spare.

[Joe Dillard]

Originally posted by Britain
East County is doing my new rear. What u did, I may do the same to the old one for a spare.

Cool.

I run an East County rear CV right now & have been for ~7.5 years with zero issues. They made me 2 different rear CV's, the second one was due to going SOA.

I stopped by their shop the other weekend since they're close to my house - but as I suspected, they were closed.

BTW: They had a "Help Wanted" sign posted out front by the gate. Perhaps I'll apply.

[Britain]

I trashed the hell out of my rear out at Devils canyon...a spare could be a good thing to have!