Hi there guys I own a 85 f250. And I am going to do a Dana 60 king pin swap. My truck has a 4 inch lift. I heard that the stock drive shaft won't fit . So do I need to get a 350 drive shaft? Im kinda a lil mad because I sold the f350 drive shaft with out knowing I might need it.

 

Some people can and do re-use the f250 driveshaft. It will fit, though some people have a little rubbing problem with the crossmember under the transfer case.

My 89 f250 has a 4 inch lift, it was on it when I bought it, and it was using the f250 front shaft. It always had a very bad vibration when in 4x4. I found out it was the front driveshaft. I could see it had play in it at the splines, the lift extends it out of the splines farther. So I made another shaft that was 1.5 inches longer, and while it lessened the vibration some, it was definitely still there.

I was debating about putting a shim under the front axle to angle the front diff a little different, but I didn't want to do this since I had already had it aligned and it came in ok with the eccentric bushings in it.

Then I came across this TSB from Ford. I don't know if I can find it again or not, but it explained some factory f250's without a lift having front vibration problems. Their solution? Install the f350 front shaft. It has a double cardan CV joint in it, which is more forgiving with driveshaft angles being off. So I bought a f350 front shaft off ebay, but then found out it took a special yoke for the transfer case, the f250 piece would not work. This yoke is getting hard to find, I found a junkyard in New York state what had one, and they shipped it to me. I finally had all the parts and installed it. This shaft extends a little bit too much also because of the lift, but it works and it got rid of the vibration, it's very smooth now.

So I would try your f250 shaft first and see how it works. The worst case for the vibration is when you have the transfer case in 2wd, and the hubs locked in. If it passes that test you are probably ok.

 

Here is a link with the TSB.

F350 Front Driveshaft for TTB F250 - Diesel Forum - TheDieselStop.com

Autozone sells the f350 driveshafts new. These are for a 89 f350, the N96675 is for the E4OD and the N97214 is for the zf. I am going to guess the auto shaft is longer than the manual shaft. They both have the double cardan cv joint on them.

 

Well that's just great. it's just like the one I had and sold for $50 😭. How can I make the f250 drive shaft work without vibrating
​​​​​​? Do I just get one made ?

 

Why not buy one from Autozone rather than having one made? Depending on which one you need, it's about $300 or so. I do not know where you are going to get the yoke to fit. Do you still have the f350 transfer case with the proper yoke?

 

I did this swap on mine last year. I have a ZF 5 speed mated to a NP 208 transfer case. I have the correct F350 driveshaft and yoke, but I found out the yoke from the 1356 transfer case will not fit my 208. I think '84 was about the last year for the 208 so it was never used with the D60. I have several 1345 and 1356 cases in my parts stash, but swapping transfer cases so I could use the correct yoke and front driveshaft would have also most likely meant rear driveshaft modification as well. So, I reused my original front driveshaft instead. Length wise it will fit, but with the 4" lift it just barely clears the transmission crossmember and it would probably rub with suspension flex. I can't say whether or not it vibrates because I never use the 4x4 on this truck.