Picked this up last night. Now I need to clean it up, or it back together slap a coat of paint on it, and put it under my truck.

Then I have to find myself a manual transmission with a manual t-case and both driveshafts and I'll be ready to go.

 

Good find. Looks like you got all the parts to at least get them in the truck and back rolling in 2wd. While you're at it, take the time to replace the axle pivot and radius arm bushings since everything is already out.

 

I put new radius arm bushings in less than 1k miles ago but pivot bushings are a must. Everything else is good to go other than maybe some new rotors if I can't turn these. Hubs appear to be g2g too so I'll get it under there in 2wd as soon as possible and then pick up the transmission when I find one. Should be decently cheap for a Mazda one.

 

Can anyone tell me what all configurations of rear driveshafts will work when I put in a tranny with a transfer case.

I know regular cab long bed will work but if I can't find one out of that, do I have other options? I'm assuming extended cab 6.5 bed will work but I don't want to find out the hard way.

 

Regular cab long bed I probably by far the most common so it won't be hard to find but if it shares a wheel base and transmission it will fit

If your truck will have a stick pull the shafts from a stick etc

Avoid a slip yoke

 

Thanks. My issue is just going to be finding one I can afford at this point. I haven't been seeing many trucks being parted out in a while.

I'm not entirely opposed to putting in an auto but then I'd need a different computer and wiring. Doesn't sound fun.

 

C6 doesn't need a computer

 

I've heard of people having issues with their engine running funny running a manual computer and auto trans or vise versa.

May be mistaken.

Would still need the linkage, steering column shifter and the plate for the cluster to show what gear I'm in. Unless I ran a floor shift.

 

If you run a C6 or AOD auto you'd prefer a PCM for a manual. It's only the electronically controlled autos that talk to the computer. The computer works best with the older ones if it thinks they won't talk to it, so that's a manual PCM. If you have an E4OD you NEED a PCM from an auto (or otherwise a stand-alone controller).

As far as the driveshaft goes, SuperCab short beds are longer than regular cab long boxes, so my guess is that you'd need to shorten a driveshaft from a SCSB. But that's not that big a deal (~$150). The main thing is to get a driveshaft that has the right joints. Newer pickups have slip yokes at the transfer case and no slip joint in the driveshaft. Older pickups (and I think all Broncos?) have a fixed yoke at the rear of the transfer case and do have a slip joint in the driveshaft. And you need the right U-joint connection at the rear axle too (I'm not sure what differences Ford used, but they had a lot to choose from, and giving Ford a lot of choices rarely seems to have been a good thing as far as consistency goes).

 

Can I not swap the yoke from my current driveshaft so it mates up with my rear? Or am I missing something?

My plan was to just pull the tranny and driveshafts from a donor truck and drag it all home at once so it would be a weekend job.

 

The yoke is the part that's welded to the driveshaft tube, so no. The center section, or cross, yes you can swap that as long as both are the same size and style.

Again, I don't know if Ford did this on all trucks differently or if this is the one place where they didn't throw curve *****. But there are different size U-joints (1310, 1350, 1410, etc) and there are the kind that are held on by U-bolts ot straps, and the kind that are pressed into another yoke with a flange that's bolted to a flange on the pinion shaft. Heck, the front driveshaft in my '95 F-150 had a U-joint with two different size caps!

 

This looks a bit easier to tackle with it laid out like this.

The ball joint setup on this thing is way different than the one on my truck. My ball joint runs up through the I beam and the camber bushing.

I don't see a camber bushing of any type on this one, there's a bolt running up through it and a big nut on top. One of the nuts is missing too.

 

Nice project. Nothing beats having 4x4, even if you don't actually need it in certain situations it's nice to know it's there.

But why in sam hell would you swap in that junk TTB bull**** when you could easily swap in a solid axle? I mean you're doing the work anyway, so what made you decide on that? Can't find a solid axle locally?

 

Trust me, I'd much rather have a solid axle. I haven't found an affordable one and I've been looking for two years. I don't have the fab skills to make a leaf sprung d44 work and I don't have the money to go with a d60.

I got in that picture for free. It still all works, I'll just need new axle pivot bushings and new brakes.

Beyond that, I can slide the I beams out and the ttb in in a couple hours because it all just goes back the same way and hooks up to my rough country brackets that I already installed.

I'm not going to do enough wheeling to destroy the ttb anyway, I just want to be able to get to my family when it snows and be able to get up the hill in the truck rather than dragging a deer up by hand.


It will also give me a couple more inches of lift in the front so that will be nice.

 

True, and if you got it for free then nobody can give you crap for it. Any 4x4 front axle is better than 2wd! Good luck with you're project.