70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
I do not have the correct drive shaft for my Charger so thought I would snap a couple of pictures and let you all follow along as I shorten one from inventory. I know that all the nay sayers will cry foul but I have done this many times and it's not your car. I needed to remove 2 7/8th from this one to fit.
First mark a lengthwise line to index it for reassembly, then make a nice straight cut all the way around just behind the weld, careful not to go to deep wall thickness is maybe .090.
You want to keep the insert piece on the yoke section. I add some longitudinal locating lines and measure how far from cut the weight is for later reattachment. I measure the amount it needs to be shortened from the nice straight cut and tape around measuring multiple times as I tape the circumference.
Bad part of a Mopar driveshaft is the rubber mounted inner tube. Using a small air cut off I cut this back a couple of inches. Using some brake clean and a couple different size screw drivers push the rubber back in between the tubes, if you were to shorten it by more than 5-6 inches I would just remove the tube it's only about a foot long.
Then deburr and bevel both pieces for welding, reinsert the yoke section lining up your longitudinal clocking line and tap it down snug. Whichever side I tap last is the one to tack weld first then tap the other side and tack it.
Then finish weld all the way around and add the weight back using the longitudinal reference lines you made earlier.
So there is driveshaft shortening 101 for cheapskates. I can't tell if it is good to 100 mph because the car does not run yet. But I intend to test it fully here shortly. She is coming together, ugly but will be a rolling resto here shortly.
First mark a lengthwise line to index it for reassembly, then make a nice straight cut all the way around just behind the weld, careful not to go to deep wall thickness is maybe .090.
You want to keep the insert piece on the yoke section. I add some longitudinal locating lines and measure how far from cut the weight is for later reattachment. I measure the amount it needs to be shortened from the nice straight cut and tape around measuring multiple times as I tape the circumference.
Bad part of a Mopar driveshaft is the rubber mounted inner tube. Using a small air cut off I cut this back a couple of inches. Using some brake clean and a couple different size screw drivers push the rubber back in between the tubes, if you were to shorten it by more than 5-6 inches I would just remove the tube it's only about a foot long.
Then deburr and bevel both pieces for welding, reinsert the yoke section lining up your longitudinal clocking line and tap it down snug. Whichever side I tap last is the one to tack weld first then tap the other side and tack it.
So there is driveshaft shortening 101 for cheapskates. I can't tell if it is good to 100 mph because the car does not run yet. But I intend to test it fully here shortly. She is coming together, ugly but will be a rolling resto here shortly.