I have a 53 chevy bel air with a regal clip upfront and when I lowered the car with airbags the driveshaft sticks out of the tranny tailshaft quite a bit. It drives but leaves a trail of tranny fluid in my driveway do to it leaking from the tailshaft. Do I need a longer tailshaft, or longer fixed yoke? I know I have to worry about the fixed yoke bottomimg out into the tranny but I have room to work with, any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
Have the drive shaft made longer so the yoke is where it supposed to be. See where the seal was riding and have it made that much longer.
Usually the driveshaft needs to be longer when you LIFT a vehicle. Trigonometry. How did you lower the back, and come up with a longer wheelbase? I made a very quick picture. Maybe the seal is just bad?
What 53 sled sed...I betcha it actually pushed in a little bit and now the seal is riding on a rough area that was previously exposed to the elements... hence the leakage.
I believe the rule-of-thumb is that there should be about 3/4 to 1" end-play at the front yoke when the driveshaft goes back in the vehicle. Long story short, I had the opposite problem when making a transmission change (early TH400 to a later version). With the replacement trans, I lost about 1/2" and had to have the driveshaft shortened 3/4" and rebalanced so that I could reassemble it. The driveshaft shop that did the work for me confirmed the "rule".
the shaft will move more now that you have installed air bags. you probably need to get your self a slip yoke installed in the rear section of your drive shaft.
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