Anybody familiar with driveshafts?

[Chris142]

My diesel truck has a 2 piece driveshaft. It is solidly mounted at each end and has a splined slip yoke at the end nearest the transmission.

My splines are very worn out.

Can I pull the shaft and turn it around to get a new wear surface? Does it matter where the splined slip yoke is? Does it matter if it's at the axle now instead of at the trans?

 

[Steve S]

I never thought of it .I would call a driveline shop and ask. Let us know the answer.

 

[03cvpi]

Replace the affected shaft. I'm not sure what you mean by solidly mounted on each end unless you are talking about the u-joint. Is there a carrier bearing assembly on each end. The spline on the trans end is on that end to absorb motion from the engine/trans assembly. Moving it to the other end will generally speed up spline wear and it is hard on the output shaft of the transmission'

 

[txtruck]

no, it should be different lengths and sizes on each end. There should be a reason that the splines are getting worn. Id fix that first.

 

[Chris142]

The reason it's worn is that it's going on 2 million miles now. It's just worn out.

Each U-Joint bolts to a yoke that comes out of the trans and another at the rearend. Both U-Joints are the same.

The cost to replace the slip yoke is very prohibitive at this time. More than some house payments.

 

[Steve S]

Most all truck stuff is quite pricy.

 

[txtruck]

well 2,000,000 explains it! its lasted this long, another OEM should last just as long and IMHO is well worth the cost considering the reliability the stock one gave you

 

[Dualie]

oh OEM. hey criss can i go with you down to the pete dealer and film the parts guys reaction when your trying to order the parts.

 

[TooManyWheels]

Is your pricing based on buying a new driveshaft, or having a driveshaft shop cut the slip joint out of the shaft and weld a new one in (which is common)? I was going to suggest having a machine shop weld up and remachine the old splines, but I think it would be hard to find a place could handle something of that size.

I don't see why you could not turn it around as a get-by. It would be reversed in rotation, so the spline contact surfaces would be different, as you suggest.

 

[mechtech2]

Flipping it around may be a good idea.
But after the initial tightness, it may be loose in a short time.
The parts will mate, and loose is loose.

 

[Chris142]

Originally Posted By: TooManyWheels
Is your pricing based on buying a new driveshaft, or having a driveshaft shop cut the slip joint out of the shaft and weld a new one in (which is common)?


Welding on a new slip yoke onto my old shaft.$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I have a parts truck but it's shaft is too short. But the slip seems ok. I'm gonna get it out and see what I can do. Either swap the good yoke onto my longer shaft or have the longer shaft welded to the good slip yoke.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
The reason it's worn is that it's going on 2 million miles now. It's just worn out..


Not too shabby Chris!! Back when I was an Operator at one of my company's plants, we'd pop the driveshaft out of an old 1980 model Kenworth yard mule, sometimes more than once a month. Some of the lesser tallented techs would try to yank a ~72K lb loaded tanker (liquid H2 no less) off a scale a bit too aggressively and bang! Cling..clang..clang. down it would fall. My take on it is; Old tractors seem to be so stiff with so little chassis flex, more force was put on the U-joints and shaft. Funniest 'Ford Commercial' I ever saw was our mechanic pulling the whole 80K lb rig with the 1990's F250 4x4 yard truck back around to the shop to fix the driveshaft on the KW. That 351 didn't seem to strain too bad either!

Joel