Swapping out powerglide in my 59 Chevrolet and had the front drive shaft before the hanger bearing shortened. Guess I mismeasured as I only have about 3/8 or so of freeplay in the driveshaft. I know its not ideal but is there much movement in a two piece drive shaft or should I get another half inch cut out. Thanks for your input
that would be risky I would try for at least 3/4" 1'' even better I would think.depends on suspension travel moving shaft in toward tail shaft over bumps,curbs so on.I would allow for worst case.
I think you will be OK...the front half of the drive shaft doesn't move. The hanger bearing wont allow it. I guess you could get 1/2" taken off the spline.
3/8 is lots, I've made all kinds of shafts and im a big fan of a 2 piece shaft, as poncho said the front shaft doesn't move, in big trucks the yoke on the tranny is usually fixed so there's zero movement, the hanger bearing mount is normally suspended in rubber so it handles and needed movement by the engine/trans
Thanks for all the info, I am going to bolt it up today and try to move the suspension as much as possible to see what happens, I forgot that the hanger bearing takes a lot of the movement. Some good information!
The stock hanger bearing is suspended in a bit of rubber and unless you put in a telescopic rear shaft you will have some movement. A lot of guys with the 59-64 full size cars put in the billet hanger with the urethane support and after a while report that the bearing has moved back and forth within the hanger. I put a telescopic 2nd shaft and billet hanger in mine as the stock hanger are pretty light weight.
