Greetings. I am midway through swapping an nv3500 into my 96 Dakota 2wd. I have everything sorted out (I think) with the exception of the driveshaft. Mine is the 3 joint shaft with a carrier bearing. I am trying to figure out where the differences in the manual and auto driveshafts are. I know the manual is about 7 inches longer and has a different front yoke. I think the back section is the same on either. So either the front yoke is longer or the middle section is longer. Does anybody know for sure? Or if there are any 2wd v8 3 joint shaft owners here that are willing to crawl underneath to measure I would greatly appreciate it. My auto shaft measures 36 inches on the rear section (joint to joint) and 33 inches on the middle section. Thanks in advance.

 

i just got done doing the same swap(just getting the run issues out of it). I never changed anything on my drive shaft. i even used the same slip yoke for the transmission. the only thing was the adding of 7in. i have the same measurements as yours(93 v8 ext cab) the only difference between yours and my would be the yoke on the axle cuz i ****ed mine up last year and had to jerry-rig it.

 

95 318SLT did a nice write up on it. He had to get a custom driveshaft made. For all the details check out his post. It is also located in the FAQ2 in this section. https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...-5-2l-4x4.html

 

Where did you add your 7 inches? On the yoke?

 

I've read through his post a couple times. My auto driveshaft was rebuilt and balanced last year so I'd prefer to use it, or as much of it as possible, that's why I'm trying to find out where those 7 inches come from. I'm hoping the yoke so I only need to replace 1 component.

 

Keep in mind that my swap applies specifically to a 4x4. Not only are the transmission's tailhousings different between a 2 and 4 wheel drive, the driveshafts are too. Like the OP said, the 2wd has a 2 piece driveshaft and the 4x4 has a 1 piece driveshaft.

With that said, it could be very possible that the 46rh and nv3500 2wd versions have a different length difference than the 4x4 versions.

If they truely are 7 inches apart like the 4x4s are, I would make the difference up in the front part of the driveshaft and leave the rear part of the driveshaft the same.

I've thought about this topic with my '95 2wd, but given that truck's current state, I haven't given it a ton of thought!!

 

like 95 said, i added it to the front half of the drive shaft just behind the slip yoke. i'd go out and take some pics for ya but its dark out and snowing(again).

 

any driveshaft company should do it for a reasonable price. I had mine done at A1 for 130$ but i dont think they are country wide. if you just take the front half in they'll add it after the yoke( when they did mine they replaced the u-joint and center bearing).they even repainted it for me! i felt so special...lol