Hey everyone, as the title states, I want to know if I can cut my slip yoke on my rear driveshaft in a pinch to shorten the shaft. I've got a 1996 1500 318 reg cab short box and just picked up a dana 70 rear/dana 60 front to swap in. Now from everything I've read so far, the front should go it without much of a problem. A buddy of mine did a similar swap into his 86 chev 1500 and said he just cut his slip yoke to make it fit (2" roughly). No I know that they're different drivelines and all but that's just the reason behind the thought and I can't find an answer anywhere. My alternative would be to have it shortened in a shop and may as well ask them to put a 14010 yoke on. Any advice would help a lot or any other advice with the swap. Thanks a lot in advance

 

Take the shaft to the shop, and have it shortened.....

Rear springs on the 1500 are 2.5 inch, on the D70, they are probably going to be 3", so, may need to address that.

 

This is important. You have to weld a 2.5" spring perch on the 70. You can use your old one if you cut it off. Why do you need bigger axles? Only reason I ask is the 2500/3500 driveshafts used 1410 u joints 1500 use 1350. So now your weak link will be your driveshafts

 

I'm trying to get it back on the road asap and during this whole pandemic thing I'm trying to spend too much at shops. So thought that might be a way until I have extra cash to have one made. That being said, when I have one made it'll be out of 4inch that's used in the 2500/3500 series with a 1350 slip yoke on the trans side and a 1410 yoke on the dana 70 end. If I was able to shorten it by shortening the slip yoke I'd use a conversion U joint to connect.

I'm probably going to pull the perches off my old axles unless someone's buying them or pull the current ones off and make them smaller. From what I've read I need to move them out 1/2 an inch too. I'm upgrading because so far I've blown my rear end out twice and am going through axle seals/bearing like crazy. Currently I only have 35s on but beat the **** out of it and have been considering going larger.

 

I don't know about wider as I have 1500 axles under my 2500, they could be correct I just don't know. I do know the 2500s use 1410 at the slip yolk and axle.

 

From what I was reading in another thread they said that the centre on the Dana 70 rear is 43 1/2 inches and on the Chrysler Spicer is 44 1/2 inches. I may have that backwards, I can't remember but I'll recheck. I'm not sure if a 1410 yoke slip shaft on the trainee end will slide in. When I talk to the driveline shop, they said it was hard to find one that does. Would it be possible or reasonable to take the Yoke off of Spicer axle and put it on the Dana. I thought I read somewhere that they are interchangeable, but I am unsure as to how practical that would be.

 

You would be correct in it being wider because the springs are 1/2" wider (duh I even said that lol). I am pretty sure the output shafts are the same because even the gasser 2500 (360) came with a 1410 Dana 60 and I doubt Dodge changed it.

 

That's a good point, so theoretically it shouldn't be too difficult to find one that'll fit. The 2500's D/S was a 4 inch diameter whereas the 1500's is a 3 inch iirc. I think that was part of the problem that the driveline shop was mentioning. Eventually I'm going to have the shaft built but in the essence of time, my question still remains 'would it be possibly to cut the slip yoke' pushing the joint further towards the tranny and overall allowing myself to continue driving until I have one built?

 

You may end up with the trans output shaft bottoming out in the slip yoke when the rear suspension compresses. That would destroy the trans/t-case right quick.

Could you find the correct shaft in the yards? So far as I know, the output shaft on the trans/t-case is the same regardless of what engine/trans combo you have.

 

I could take a look around and see, I'll need to have the axles in place for measurements first. I'm not too sure how common the 2500 series short box reg cab combo was. I didn't think about that though.