I need to get my front drive shaft done so I can get my 4x4 working again.

I am wondering what everyone did to get there 4x4 working again?

From what the drive shaft builders are telling me is that I have to get a whole new one. They can't lengthen the old one by 3" to make it true. Also I would have to get a 2" round and it is going to be tight under there.....

Like I said I am just wondering what you did to get yours working again.

Thanks

 

You might see if you can find one for another truck that is longer. The one off my dodge parts truck wound up being perfect for mine, but maybe you can find one longer off something else and get it shortened?

 

I looked and looked and even cut mine in half. I am still seeing what might work. I looked in the junk yard for 5 hours and no go. We will see what happens...

 

You could take a rear shaft and use the tubing from that with your ends...a lot of the smaller privately owned machine shops will re-tube it for about $100 or so. I have had nothing but bad experiences from the larger shops. Every shaft I have taken to a larger shaft, they told me they'd re-tube it, and later called me and told me that the ends were out of round and couldn't be re-used. The funny part is that they were fine before I took them off of the truck...

The shop you are going to is correct, however. You cannot extend your existing shaft...you must have a longer tube and have it shortened.

I've heard of some extreme 4-wheelers making them out of boxed tubing, and since it's only used at low speeds offroad it doesn't need to be balanced. I've never seen it done, but might be worth looking into. I wouldn't run it on a snowy road like this, though.