I want to say right off the bat that this place is great. There are so many intellegent folks willing to share information on here. The averate cost of building a strong 22r.........2000 dollars. Finding out how to do it right from the guys at 4x4 wire........priceless. Now onto the crux of the matter:

I have a couple of driveshafts sitting 'round and was wondering if I can use the cv joint off of a spare front driveline, for the front of my rear driveshaft? I'm certain that it will work and all, it's the strength issue that concerns me. I'll have a much longer shaft behind the cv joint, which would seem to translate to more leverage on the crosses. My housing angle has been adjusted according to my lift, but if it will hold up, I don't see why a cv joint on the front end of my rear driveshaft wouldn't make for a better, more durable set-up. Anyone ever tried this?

Yep, it'll work fine. I run a front CV on my rear shaft:


Jus tbe sure and tilt your pinion up to line up with the shaft:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/Shims.shtml#FAQ1

Also forgot to mention you'll need to either redrill your t-case flange or put on a double or triple drilled flange to match up to the CV bolt pattern.

Thank you sir. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

According to Jess at High Angle Driveline Toyota, u-joints are as strong if not stronger as any one-ton joint on the market. In 12 years of hardcore wheeling, I have only blown one. I used to run a one piece D-shaft that was about 5.5 feet long with a modified IFS front CV on it and never blew one.

Can't I just take the c.v. joint apart and use my flange on the front c.v. joint cross?

The CV joint has a different bolt pattern than the u-joint because the CV joint is physically larger:

http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/DriveshaftSpacer.shtml#Introduction

You can pull the front t-case flange off and put it on the rear output or you can redrill the rear flange. I used my front flange as a pattern for the holes in the rear flange and used a little jig to align the two for drilling:

No, the CV joint parts are very different.

I think i'm tracking now. I've got another transfer case, so I'll just use the flange off of it. I still cant get this part straight though: If I take the front U-joint on the c.v. apart (remove the flange and leave the cross) it won't work on the other flange and yoke? ( the one that came off the front of my drive shaft after taking that u-joint apart.) What I'm getting at is that if the U-joints in the c.v. are different sizes than the ones on the rear drive-shaft, I'll have to use the front part of the front drive-shaft with the rear part of the rear drive shaft and connect them through the slip joint?..........(If I could talk I could explain it better).......is that right?

Yes that is right. What I did was take the CV and the rear slip and yokes to the D-shaft shop with the measurement from the flange on the T-case to the flange on the rear end and they built me a d-shaft. My shop likes the measurements from both the top and the bottom of the flanges. If the d-shaft does not bolt up to the flanges you can always drill the flanges for the d-shaft.