Okay. I'll do that.

Okay, just to be clear, you're saying that I need the double cardan yoke like the donor would have? I'm looking at replacement drive shafts on Bronco Graveyard, and those double cardan yokes only seem to be on the shafts for automatic trucks. If none of the manual trucks have double cardan yokes, and if my u-joint will fit in the pinion yoke on the axle, I'm having difficulty seeing why my shaft won't work once a driveshaft shop gets the length right on it.

Is there a reason to replace it that I'm missing? I don't mean to be a pain, I just want to understand why I'm doing something before I do it.

 

I think the thing is that you want to have the double cardon joint so that it splits the angle between two different u-joints. There is too much angle at the T-Case for one u-joint to handle it efficiently, so the cardon joint is better because it divides the angle across two joints. Does that make sense?

And FWIW, my factory ZF5 truck has the double cardon joint front driveshaft in it as well.

For those bolts, I think you're likely going to have to heat them up cherry red or just cut them off. They get fused inside the steel bushing in the spring and they're next to impossible to remove without a lot of heat or just cutting them off.

 

Okay, I'll use more heat, then.

So, can I just use a double cardan joint attached to my existing shaft, or will I need to replace the entire shaft?

 

The rear bolts were a pain to remove. On the donor truck I tried cutting/grinding the ends of the bolt off and prying the hangar apart. That really didnt work because the hangar has very little give to it. I also tried using a sawzall blade and cutting the bolt inside of the hangar but the heat kills the blade pretty quickly. I ended up cutting one side of the hangar off of the donor truck to get the spring out.

For my truck I used a propane torch to heat the bolts and sprayed some WD40 Rust release on them while they were still hot. It took a couple cycles and a big hammer but evenually the bolts came out.

Be sure to use some antiseize when reinstalling everything.

For the drive shaft you will need a whole new shaft. A Double cardon joint has a pivot point built into the shaft.

 

Awh, shucks. Oh, well. I'll have more time, at least, to sort out the driveshaft. That's a great diagram, by the way. Thank you!

 

Maybe the manual trans is longer than the auto and moves the transfer rearward lessoning the angle the front driveshaft has to make.

With my TTB front drive shaft attached to my donor D60 I had a lot of noise vibrational 30mph and did not exceed this speed.

I installed the D60 donor front driveshaft with the double carson joint and can run at highway speeds without noticing.

 

The manual transmission is actually shorter.

 

It's good to see this comming along. I have been using my 250 shaft since I did the D60 swap, but it's noisy (it was noisy before the swap too). But I have a stock 350 shaft that will be going in when I lower the truck, just need the t-case yoke. My PMF RSK was just delivered yesterday and I already have a set of U-codes from a '99 with 2.5" leveling springs. Just need the rear springs. Would an '06 be a good source for them? According to car-part.com they should be C or F codes depending on whether they have an auxiliary spring.

 

I'm also having considerable difficulty removing the stock pitman arm. Does anyone have any suggestions? I tried using a pitman arm puller in combination with heat.

 

Can you put the puller on and smack the collar of the pitman arm that goes over the splines with a hammer?

 

I'll try it today. I've got the puller on with it soaking at the moment.

 

Do NOT heat it. You will just ruin the seal.

Take a cut off wheel and heavily score the pitman arm on both sides. Then use the puller

 

I already had my tie rods in place before I changed my pitman arm. Which didn't let me swing very hard on the puller's bolt.

I let it set all night hoping it would pop off overnight. No such luck.

Just got mad and tightened the puller like it was a rented tool and hit the puller bolt head harder. It came free.

 

When All else fails, a bigger hammer is always the answer. lol.

 

I made a relief cut in the pitman arm and was able to remove it with a puller and a hammer.