This morning I took my slip yoke to Precision Driveline in Glasgow, KY. This is a one man operation and Terry was kind enough to let me snap some pictures while he made a new driveshaft.
The first thing that Terry did was slide my old driveshaft into a big lathe and cut off the old weld yokes. This was not nearly as dramatic as I thought it might be.
I made some very careful measurements last night and the slip yoke needed to be trimmed just a little bit. Interestingly enough, the Strange yoke didn't have splines cut in it for the first 3/4" or so. According to my measurements that whole section without the splines needed to be trimmed off. Terry had a CNC Bridgeport that he used to mill the yoke.
After the yoke was trimmed a new Neapco solid u-joint was mated to the weld yoke.
Terry then measured and cut the tube, assembling it on his fixture, making sure that the ends of the shaft are indexed correctly.
Once he was happy with the alignment and the straightness of the tube is was time to MIG weld the yokes to the tube.
After the yokes were welded Terry allowed the shaft to cool down before balancing it. Here is the new finished shaft.
The careful measuring really paid off. I was able to slide the slip yoke inside the transmission and the rear u-joint BARELY slipped into the pinion yoke. This is about as long as the driveshaft can be without being TOO long.
After the driveshaft was installed there was no more noticeable lateral movement at the slip yoke. I don't know if this was my sole source of the driveline vibration, but I am 100% sure it was a contributing factor. I will know for sure once the car is back on the road in a couple of weeks.
Andrew