Has anyone converted a 60-66 chevy/gmc longbed to a 1 piece driveshaft from a 2 piece? I keep tearing out the carrier bearing. The truck originaly had a grannylow trans in it and i changed it to a 64 corvette T10. I get about 500-1000 miles out of them then tear the rubber out of them.
Is it really low? There's something wrong with how it is set up or you need to start using a different drive shaft shop. Post pics that show the angles at all the joints. Is there plenty of room between the output of the trans and the yoke? I could go on, let's see what you are dealing with.
Also, what year is the truck? The driveline halves were different lengths in '60-62 vs. '63-'66. Again, pics will help. I have done that same modification many times, also with longer 5 speeds. As you can see from my avatar, I also drive a very low '63 GMC. I am going out on a limb, but I am going to guess that you have a lowered '64-'66 truck and have not raised the carrier bearing mount. these drivelines are too long to go to a one piece.
I've worn a lot of those out but never tore one up in that length of time. you either have some problem with the way things are assembled, a vibration problem in the driveshaft it's self or way too much led in the right foot.
the drive line need not be straight but must have some angles .shaft and pinion.. built in pics will help
Yup, got tired of replacing the center support bearing in my 65. Had a one piece made and never had problems again. Ran it daily for years and took a trip to Baja and back in it. It had a 350/350 combo with a lead foot.
Its a 65 with a leaf spring rear end. Id take pics but my camera is fd up. The front shaft is straight the way it was from the factory with the rear on a angle like before. The pinion is 2 degrees down and there are no binding problems or vibrations. I have a inch between the yoke and trans seal and have 2 inchs between the rear yoke and the carrier bearing. I have slapper bars on it with 3/4 air gap between the snubbers and the spring eye. The truck is only lowered 3 inchs in the rear. The motor does make a little over 400hp and I beat on it like a rental car. LOL. I shift this thing at 7000 rpm. It keeps pulling the rubber apart toward the trans and bottoming out the yoke into the trans. Whats weird is there is no trace of the rear yoke bottoming into the carrier bearing. There is a pic of the truck in my album and you can see that it doesnt sit that low.
Some angle had to change between the old SM420 and the new T10 box. How do the lengths of them match up? Also the mount interface to the output shaft vertical distance difference might be the problem. Bob
Jst make sure that your driveshaft is aligned properly (you should be able to scoot the support a little bit) and that the drive shaft is balanced. I have run those trucks for years, there is actually a '65 that we put together in '69 that I have owned at least 6 times since then. my experience with them is that they eat driveshaft supports because of either one of or both of the things I mentioned. Also be sure that you buy a quality support. Don't take the parts store brand ask for federal mogul or moog or the like.
Put a one piece Denny's driveshaft in my 62 C10. No problems, they are easy to deal with. They have a website
My '61 Suburban has a 1pc driveshaft... had one with the Granny 4spd, and I had it shortened and removed the slip joint when I swapped to a 4spd. Other than a potential problem with the trailing arm's crossmember/mount interfering, I don't see why you can't swap to a 1pc. -Brad
The Jalopy Journal
