Driveshaft

The new manual transmission is significantly longer than the old automatic that it is replacing, and the new 10-bolt axle had a longer pinion than the old one. Because of this, the driveshaft had to be shortened to make up the difference.

Measuring the Driveshaft Length

In order to measure the proper driveshaft length, the car must be sitting somewhat level at ride height on its own suspension, and the transmission must be installed and shimmed close to the correct angle. In other words, the driveshaft length is the final piece to the puzzle.

The car was put up on four ramps so that it would be sitting level. The slip yoke was put onto the transmission output shaft, and clocked to be vertical. The same was done for the yoke on the pinion.

When measuring the distance between the two yokes, the slip yoke in the transmission must be pulled out by a short distance, as it is not supposed to ever bottom out while driving the car. I was told by Malmberg Powertrain to pull it out one inch. Rather than try to measure if it had been pulled out the correct amount, I instead stuffed a socket that was one inch tall into the yoke itself, and then pushed it onto the transmission output shaft as far as it could go.

At this point, measuring the driveshaft is as simple as measuring the center-to-center distance between the two yokes. The two yokes must be clocked the same way when taking the measurement.

Universal Joints

The TKO 500 transmission uses a Ford C6 slip yoke, which meant that it uses a different universal joint size than what the car came with. I determined that the car was using 1344 style u-joints, which meant that I would need a slip yoke that fits a C6 transmission and 1344 u-joints. I could not find such a slip yoke, so I instead bought one that uses a 1350 u-joint, and then bought a special u-joint that is a 1350 on one axis, and a 1344 on the other. This combination of parts meant that I finally had a driveshaft that would connect from the transmission to the rear differential.

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Page last modified on December 27, 2010 01:50:57. (ID=43)