I'm looking at buying my first classic ford. I checked out a 1965 f-100 2wd long bed today. Truck looked 100%stock to me. My question is the driveshaft was in 3 parts, well after the front section was some kind of support bearing then a short section followed by another long shaft. Between the support bearing and the short piece was a section of splines exposed about 2-3 inches long. Is the normal for these or is one of the pieces too short? Thanks for your time.

 

Hello and welcome to the site.

The long bed trucks have what is commonly referred to as a two piece drive shaft and is what you described.

The splines are part of the slip yoke assembly. 3" exposed seems a bit much for a truck at rest.

The support bearing is usually called a carrier bearing and supports the rear of the front section of the drive shaft. It includes the splines you refer to. The rear section of the drive shaft includes the female portion of the slip yoke and connects to the rear end.

Any up and down movement of the rear axle causes a change in length of the drive shaft. The slip yoke allows this change without putting anything in a bind.

Hope this helps.

 

Yes, that's normal.

 

Thanks for your input.

 

I should have taken a pic of the area in question but I think the exposed area is about doubled what is pictured in the diagram. I forgot to mention that the truck is stock ride height.

 

Since there's no pic like this in the 1964/72 catalog, here's the pic from the 1973/79 catalog:

There are 3 u-joints, they're all the same: FORD = C5TZ-4635-F / Spicer: 210392-X

This is a combination joint, 2 cups are 1310's, 2 cups are 1330's.

I owned a 1965 F100 2WD 8' Styleside from 3/1965 to 11/2009.

 

My '66 long bed gas a lot of exposed splines just aft of the carrier bearing as well. It looks to have been that way for a while.
john

 

If you look there should be a zirk fitting to grease the whole assembly.

 

When I did my upgrade, and swapped to C6, I went with a longer one piece drive shaft. No issues in over 10 years.


John

 

Hello John.

I know this reply is several years old, but I tried to msg you and was not able to. I just joined. I wanted to ask you specifically about the driveshaft you mentioned and get some more information regarding your setup. If you could message me that would be greatly appreciated. I'm not far from you according to your profile stating you are in Creedmoor. I'm in Concord, NC, but have family up that way.

Thanks, BC