1 ton axels under a k10 shortbed

[bloodrunner83]

Hey folks, I wanna beef up my drive train by putting some 1 ton axels under my k10 short bed. I know they will bolt up easy, but I don't know what to do with drive shafts, yokes, and universals! Any body do something similar or know anything about doing this? The reason being, I'm gonna run my truck in the "run whatcha brung" class at my local annual truck pulls. My engines putting out an estimated 400 ponies so I know I'll be chewing through my 1/2 ton drive train.

 

[77 K20]

I'm sure crazy4offroad can chime in. He has a thread about his build... but I've often wished it had a table of contents. 100 pages and growing!

http://www.gmsquarebody.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154

 

[crazy4offroad]

Rear driveshaft needs to be lengthened a couple inches since the 14 bolt's pinion is shorter than the 10/12 bolt. It's also a good opportunity to have your driveline shop upgrade you to 1350 or 1410 u-joint yokes.

Front driveshaft, take it off and throw it away. The 3R joints just wont do the job. Look for a front driveshaft from a Dodge 2500 around model year 2005. They have the same bolt pattern flange as our front outputs but have 1350 u-joints in the double cardan and pinion end of the shaft. The Dodge driveshaft is also capable of a higher running angle than our stock driveshafts. It WILL have to be cut to length by a driveline shop to fit our trucks.

Personally I opted for the F*ord 32-spline front output shaft for the NP205, which allows you to bolt a yoke directly to the transfer case and eliminate the double cardan joint. This setup is stronger but may cause vibration if you drive in 4WD at highway speeds but for the trails it is fine. Then I built my own driveshaft out of two pieces of 1/4" wall box steel, one 2" and one 2-1/2" so they slide together with a little work. Another option if you don't want to tear into your t-case is getting a 27-spline front output yoke from a pre-77 K-truck with an NP203. They didn't have the double cardan back then, just a yoke for front output.

I want to do the Dodge shaft when funds permit, or when my current setup fails. As of now I can hear a slight amount of slop between the two pieces of box steel but I haven't exactly been easy on it either.

 

[bloodrunner83]

very cool guys! I didn't even think of using a dodge drive shaft but that sounds appetizing! lol