One Peice Driveshaft Swap

[Mechanickid]

I'm not sure what forum to post this in so I posted it here.

I've about had it with the 2 piece drive shaft on my 88 Ex-Cab. About a month after I bought the truck the carrier bearing started to make some noise. I checked it and the rear bearing seal was gone and so was all the grease. So I shot some WD on it and forgot about it. For the last few days I've been hearing this squeal from my truck like a brake squeal. The squeal would stop when I hit the brakes, so I checked those and they were fine. My next thought was the carrier bearing, Checked that and the dust cover on the front of it was zinging around making all the noise.

The carrier bearing is toast,I have a spare but I'm tired of the whole idea of 2 drive shafts where only one is needed. My question is, how hard is it to swap in a one piece shaft from a 98 ^ ranger? From what I can see the cross member where the carrier bearing goes is in the way. Plus since my truck is an 88 it has smaller U-joints, so wont I have to swap drive flanges?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

You will have to swap flanges and remove the cross member.

 

[4x4RangerGuy]

You will have to swap flanges and remove the cross member.

+1

It's not hard at all if you have basic tools and knowledge. The xmember is bolted I believe, not riveted, so you should be fine there.

 

[rboyer]

The crossmember only needs to come off if you're running a decent sized suspension lift, if it's stock height you can leave it alone and just take the carrier bearing bracket off. If you're going to be hammering it pretty good you also might want to take off your gas tank skid plate and trim 1/2" of it off all the way down the side. I know that before I trimmed mine it would scrape and make a really awful noise every time I dumped the clutch.

 

[mudcrazy]

I just did mine (different year tho) I couldn't afford 250 bucks for the one at the scrap yard so I got a ds from a 89 F250. Took the u-joints off, bought 2 precision universal joints,(#372) used my ends off of the old shaft. Now the only thing is with this new u-joints, on the longer part of the new joint I had to use my own end caps and thats it. It all bolts together like new. I didn't grab pics when I did this, but can take it back off and take some if need be.

 

[crawlin91]

I cut out the xmember and Ive taken alot off my gas tank skid and it still rubs pretty good at full flex.

 

[RangerSVT]

I would not remove the xmember, that is your gas tank support, remove the carrier bracket, not the xmember
SVT

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

You remove the crossmember that the carrier bearing is mounted to. It doesn't have anything to do with the gas tank.

 

[wahlstrom1]

^^^^ What he said. I've had mine pulled for the last 75,000km's without an issue.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Yea mines been missing for about 50,000kms now. Its not structural at all, if it was it would mount to the top and bottom flanges on the frame rails.