Seized front axle?

[Magnum44357]

Hey guys, I realized today that my front driveshaft on my 1973 K10 (hooked up to an np208 Tcase) isnt moving in and out of the spline like its supposed to any ideas on how to free it up? I found a new Dline on craigslist for 30 bucks, think its worth just swapping out and not dealing with all the fuss?

 

[crazy4offroad]

It must have a lot of slop in it to have bound up so yes I would replace it but I would rather look at junkyard parts than mail-order so you can check to make sure the splines on the slip are good & tight and not floppy loose.

 

[Magnum44357]

ahh gotcha. yeah its just craigslist so I'll be meeting him somewhere so I can check to see if its in good shape or not. Only 30 bucks...

should the spline be really loose (in and out) but snug side to side? or should it be hard to pull in and out?

Thanks

 

[crazy4offroad]

Extend it all the way and try to flop the end yoke on the shaft. If there's a lot of play I would pass on it, it will end up like the one you have. It should be relatively tight as far as that goes but slip with medium force.

 

[Magnum44357]

Thanks man, I'll keep that in mind when I go to purchase one. the guy ended up selling it to someone else... So I'm still on the hunt lol

I think I should actually buy a new used one and have it extended because I have a 9" lift in the front (6" shackle, 3" body) Is that something thats easy enough for me to do myself? like as long as i dont plan on going over like 30 does the shaft have to be balanced?

I'd take it to a shop to get it done, but I'm kinda broke lol

 

[crazy4offroad]

Not sure I understand 6" shackle lift, do you mean rear shackle flip and lift springs up front? Or 6" front shackles?? That would have your pinion pointing too far down and really hurt driveline angle. Hopefully you have 6" lift front springs. Is this truck a standard or automatic? Standard trans is shorter than an automatic and also hurts driveline angle. Have you checked to see if your t-case crossmember has been lowered any? There is usually spacers on top of the frame rail that you can move down between the crossmember and frame and gain a little better angle. Answer these questions and we can figure out a better plan for your truck if you think you're going to continually have front driveline problems.

 

[Magnum44357]

Yeah I guess that was kind of confusing lol. I DO have a 3" shackle lift in front, but also a 3" spring and 3" body. making 6" of lift in spring and shackle. and yeah shackle flip and spring lift in rear aswell.

from what I can tell the spring and shock mounts on the front axle (D44) were cut and re welded to fix the angle of the pinion. (previous owner did the lift)

The trucks a Manual transmission with an NP208 Tcase (cv style driveshaft) I've checked the clearance between the cv joint and crossmember (which has not been lowered) and its barely clearing (like 3/8") so I'm ok for now. (something I'll address later i think)

 

[crazy4offroad]

I need to see pics of this cut & weld of the front perches, particularly the passenger side. I'd also like to see pics of the front shackles, for a shackle to lift the front 3" it would need to be 6" long.

 

[Magnum44357]

Ok, so I went out today and looked again at the perches. The one on the left hand side looks to me, re-welded, but after looking at the passenger side its pretty clear that the angle hasn't been touched at all because its "like new" lol (so I was wrong on that) the differential sits pretty stinkin close to 90 degrees. That bad? the angle of the driveshaft seems alot better than most rigs I seen, but idk.

heres a picture of my shackles. from bolt to bolt there 7" long

 

[crazy4offroad]

I wish you would have gotten pics of the perches. But yeah, that's one honkin longggg shackle mang.

 

[Magnum44357]

heres the perches. what specifically are you looking for with the perches though?

 

[crazy4offroad]

That looks like a factory weld to me on the driver side. The passenger side you can see the perch is actually made into the cast iron center section. So you can see welding a shim or rotating the pinion by grinding down the perch at an angle is a bad idea. Now I know this is aggrivating me wanting a pic of this and a pic of that, but see if you can get a pic of the angle the pinion is at. Be back far enough and level with the ground good enough so we can see how bad the angle is. You need some upward pointing of the pinion but not so much that the pinion bearing starves for lube. Does the truck steer funny when driving on the blacktop? Unusual tire wear? With too much shackle your caster angle changes and all kinds of weird drivability problems pop up.

 

[smurph20]

Thats what i was thinkin too a pic showing the knuckle and the pinionall in the same shot. That way we could see if there is a lot fo caster angle and the angle of the pinion.

 

[Magnum44357]

Aight It's too dark to do it tonight, I got a 12hr shift Tomorrow and am going to spend the whole day Saturday helping out at the drag strip, so I'll try to get some Pics up, like u guys are describing on Sunday.

I bought the truck with the lift so I'm not sure if there is any "funny steer". It never really went in a straight line lol I always figured due to the fact that just about every ball joint is blown... and I'm running on 38.5" boggers doesnt help... the truck hasnt been more than 100 miles since I got it (spent a year replacing the cab and ridding it of rust once and for all) so I cant tell if there is any unusual tire wear either

But like I was saying the Pinion Sits FLAT (front of diff sits at 90 degrees) its within like 5 degrees of no angle what so ever. but again I'll try to get some pics sunday.

Oh and when I was under there the other night It hit me, I DO NOT have a front suspension lift, only the rear... idk how i got it in my head that I had lift springs in the front, but there stock for sure. Flat as a board. So in reality my front lift is only 3.5 inches plus the 3" body, but the body lift doesn't matter when talking about the driveshaft...

Maybe I'd be ok with just getting a new stock driveshaft like I had originally planned.

if I ever wanted to put a spring lift in the front to level it out with the back whats the max you think i could go with a stock driveshaft?

 

[crazy4offroad]

Auto trans you can go 6" with little fuss, standard I would say 4" since the trans is shorter your front driveline angle will be steeper with 6". If all else fails you could always do the 2005 Dodge 2500 front driveshaft mod, something I've been wanting to do for a while now. It has a steeper running angle and utilizes 1350 u-joints, much beefier than the 3R joints you have now. Might be some modding necessary to make it work as far as the crossmember and pinion yoke goes. And of course you would need a driveline shop to cut it down to fit your truck.