I took up Staceman on his idea and contacted the yard in North Carolina at the top of his list. I asked them to check the slip joint and get back to me. They sounded like good old boys and were polite to boot! $40 is cheap if they come up with something good. At that price I'll be happy even if it needs some rebuilding, as long as it's not rusty.

I also sent an email to davezoffroadperformance.com. I think I bought my V6 calipers from him about a half dozen years ago. Thanks for that Snowtoy. It's good for me to have a parts connection in California.

I wonder how much Roger had to pay for his rebuild. I think I paid around a $125 just to get the CV rebuilt. A spline shaft and slip yoke from Marlin or Trail-Gear runs $180. To put something like that together seems like it would run over $300. If I can get a nice used shaft from those boys in NC for $60 including shipping I'll be happy.

I think my rebuilt shaft was around $300. That also included re-tubing it for longer length and balancing the finished assembly. The new slip yoke is nice, it has a threaded seal on the end that keeps the grease inside and the dirt outside. For further protection, I added an old Rancho shock boot over that end with a few drain holes to allow any water that might get inside to drain out.

The shop that rebuilt the double cardan and stud ball on my drivesahft also welded a cap onto the outer end of the slip-yoke tube.

In an earlier post in this thread McQ said he used an IFS front shaft on his '84. I just remembered, I still have my '89 4runner parts truck, which has a front shaft that's not doing anything useful right now. I should give that a try. Any reason it wouldn't work?

The IFS CV joint would need to be clearanced to handle the greater angles on the solid axle front end:
- http://www.4x4wire.com/toyota/tech/cvmod/

I'm sure mine isn't text book correct, but it's in 4x4 all the time (on my street truck)and still no ill effects.

But..... I'm the same guy that leaves the line at 7000 rpm's with all stock driveline parts (except the clutch)over 50 times every summer !!

Roger, When I look at pictures of you crawling the Golden Crack I know why you think of maximizing your CV joint's angle. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" /> I think my mostly stock, mostly street driven truck could get by for a while with an IFS shaft with no problem.

Thanks for the tech link on modifying the clearance on the IFS shaft. Now I just need to learn how to replace the center stud ball (see pic below). NAPA and NWOR <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" /> sell the repair ball kit.

WOW!(checked out the video) That's a good test of the driveline!!!