Drive shaft Question

[LDO]

I have read several articles and threads regarding proper drive shaft measurements so I figured I would post it here to make sure I understand the process correctly.

Here's what I did:
Drive shaft installed on my 57 short bed 3100 with a 283 and a TH350 trans.

I took a sharpie and made a mark on the yoke which represents the installed depth.

I removed the driveshaft from the rear end and slid it all the way into the transmission and made another mark representing fully seated depth.

As I understand the process, the difference between the two marks should be 3/4 to one full inch max.

Here were my results:
The difference between my fully seated mark and the installed depth mark is about 2 inches which tells me that my drive shaft is about an inch too short.

Also, when I had the D/S disconnected from the rear end and fully seated into the transmission, I still had about an inch worth of yoke 'shiny end' showing; in other words, about an inch from the end of the transmission to the shoulder of the yoke. Is my yoke too long?

any advice/comments?

[pgf545]

We had a local drive shaft shop build ours but I found this on Denny's driveshaft web site.

http://www.dennysdriveshaft.com/how_to_measure.html

One thing I know from experience is make sure this is right if not lots of damage WILL be done!!!! My brother just trashed the transmission in his race car because the drive shaft was to long and bottomed out.


Bernie

[pgf545]

Dang should have looked here first....these are the guys that build the shaft for our truck.

http://www.randysdriveshaft.com/tech.html

I have a couple of pictures on my build thread about 3 pages from the back....or there abouts.

Bernie