Something appears to be out of place if with the axle swinging from the springs the slip joint is jammed into the tail piece. When the car is lowered onto the wheels the driveshaft would be pressed haevily against the tail piece…
With this having coil springs. the axle is located by the control arms. It’s not a sure thing that jacking up the car would move the axle away from the tranny. The opposite could occur. The only way to check would be to try this with the car on a ‘drive on’ lift, or over a pit.
The ONLY thing I can think of to help you if all else fails is to Loosen the Shackles that hold the rear onto the Leaf Springs. Some 70’s vehicles like trucks had a sort of swing arm back there…either way…either loosen those leaf spring clamps…or pop the bolts on the swing arm setup…
Maybe someone replaced the leaf Springs with incorrect sized ones? The only thing holding that Rear end in that position is the shackles on the leaf springs…perhaps your rear end was moved forward on the leafs and then tightened? If so…you would have zero room left to remove your driveshaft… Perhaps the guy who installed the rear end…just has it in the wrong position on the leafs?
Thats the only thing I can think of. Remove those shackles on the springs and the rear end will be free of the vehicle basically.
Blackbird
Yeah thats what I meant by the “Swing Arm” comment… I couldnt think of the words for Control arms at the moment… LOL…
Same idea… remove what holds the rear where it is… and it will come out. Maybe someone got a custom driveshaft and installed all of this in one shot? It would be an awful lot of work to have to do that just to pop a shaft off… Somethings not Kosher in this setup if he really has no room to remove the shaft…dont you think?
But…now you got coil springs to deal with, can’t just undo the swing arms.
Oh I know… Thats why I said it would be an awful lot of work…LOL It would be! But what if some genius installed the wrong shaft? What if they installed the rear…shaft and all… all at once? How or why? I have no idea… hahaha If the OP is correct and there literally is not any room…I really cant understand how this even happened. Can you?
When the vehicle goes down the road over normal ups and downs, the rear axle will rise and fall to follow the road. When it does that it’s distance from the transmission changes (small changes but it does change). The yoke on the transmission end of the driveshaft is meant to slide in and out of the transmission to accommodate this. If it didn’t, then you’d rupture the transmission.
The summary of my above wording is that you must already have built-in travel for the driveshaft. Else you wouldn’t be able to drive the vehicle.
So if the vehicle is raised such that the rear axle is hanging, (and the rear U-joint bolts are removed), can you pry the rear U-joint forward 1/4 inch or so?
This is why we are so confused…
M feeling is that it would be a good time to measure the driveshaft length along with the transmission length and decode that transmission to determine exactly what you’re dealing with.
Many of these cars were pounded back in the day and swapping parts out with whatever could be scrounged up was common.
I’m still confused. If I understand correctly, the OP has disconnected the rear U-joint yolk but cannot move the driveshaft forward enough to drop the rear cross out of the yolk. It would seem that disconnecting the cross entirely would allow the driveshaft to move back more freely, or, worst case, chopping the yolk and replacing the U-joint entirely.
I hope this guy knows that when you loosen the bolts that hold the C clamps…which in turn hold the U-Joint Caps to the Differential) Sometimes a nice whack of a baby sledge is needed to break the U-joint loose from the Diff Yoke…Sometimes those Caps fit into the yoke a little too perfectly and rust becomes the welder… A proper whack in the correct location…and or a pry bar will allow the U joint to pop out of the yoke… They seldom just “Fall off” when you remove the bolts…unless you have had the shaft off frequently that is…
The OP stated that he has removed many a drive shaft in the past however… Not sure I can offer any further advice or theories. This is a simple affair.
Blackbird
OP, Please be sure and wear safety glasses before you start whacking on rusted parts. I would hate for you to be injured in the process.
BTK
Just a little update. I noticed one the internal C clips that holds on the cap of the u-joint was somehow wedged-stuck where it would not spin around free like the other one. I ended up getting it out about a half an hour prying and bending it.
I then got it to drop down 1/2". First time I ever got it to move anywhere left,right,front back etc.
It is still matted on the diff tightly. I did pry and bang for a little while with no luck.
I will definitely try prying hammering more but time ran out.
Maybe now it will break loose and will see if I can squeeze it out of there.
I will update when I try-find out more info.
It might not be for a couple days though.
My concern would be the driveshaft yoke being wedged all the way into the tailshaft housing with no room to for movement.
If there’s a U-joint issue now maybe that’s the reason why and any U-joint problem would be a symptom rather than a cause.
You have removed the the retainers…the U shaped retainers that hold those two bearing caps in place. The empty bolt holes are shown clearly in the first video. Don’t even start the video, it’s right on the preview page.
Also, looking at that preview photo…I’d slide a good sized pry bar from right to left…under the old U-joint toward the start arrow and pull toward the front of the vehicle as I pound.
Yosemite
The wheels being “off the ground” does not necessarily mean that the rear axle is “hanging” from the springs.
what about the front U joint?
The front U joint typically can’t be unbolted. Have to press it out.
So basically…the U joint is unbolted from the diff yoke…and now he is trying to do a U joint replacement or removal while the shaft is still in place… Thats not going to be pretty or do much for you.