89stanglx

Hey guys! I have a 89 5.0 auto I bought that needed a new rear end, the side gears and spider gears are stripped. I have removed the carrier assembly from the housing, and the axles. All that is left is the pinnion gear. I have to remove the driveshaft to get to the nut for the pinnion gear which is obvious. My problem is that i removed the 4 bolts from the ujoint flange but the driveshaft wont drop I thought the other end of the driveshaft should slide into the transmission an inch or 2 but there is no give. I need about 2 inches of clearence at the rear end to seperate the 2 flanges to clear the pinion shaft and nut. Then i cant put my new pinion gear back in and my new carrier assembly back in. The rear axle is sitting up on jack stands and i have tried reaching up between the two flanges with a prybar but there is so much tension that i cant get anymore than about a inch between them. One more thing i will try tomorrow is try jacking up on the body to expand the suspesion and see if i get any more room.

Trannyman

The mounting flange on the driveshaft likes to stick to the flange mounted to pinion sometimes. Can be a pain to break it loose. Try hitting the flange on the driveshaft, but don't go "Gorrilla", and don't hit the driveshaft itself. Hope this helps. And yes once it's loose from the flange the driveshaft will slide into the trans a couple of inches. Hope this solves your problem.

89stanglx

My 2 flanges are completly seperate they are not stuck together, and there is a little pivot from the ujoint flange. the driveshaft will not move into the transmission at all. The 2 flanges currently have about a 1/2" of play but i need about 2 inches to clear the pinion gear shaft and nut. Like i said before i can use a pry bar between the 2 flanges but there just isnt enough give to get the driveshaft flange over the pinion gear stud and nut. There are splines on the transmission end of the driveshaft end right? It's suppose to slide in a few inches right? There is no rust,dirt or debris preventing it. any more help from anyone is appreciated.

roundman

sounds like the only thing left you can do is remove the bolts from the upper control arms and let the rear end pivot backwards some to get enough clearance to pull the drive shaft past the pinion flange. I'm betting this ain' the stock driveshaft that came on the car as I didn't have any problem dropping my driveshaft like you're having. or the splines in the tranny end are twisted and stuck so they can't slide like they should. once you do get it out, I would inspect the tranny output shaft and the driveshaft yoke to see if they are messed up and replace anything that needs replacing so it can slide freely again.

89stanglx

roundman since i read your post im praying that the splines are not twisted and i know the driveshaft is stock. I havent found anything on the car thats isn't stock yet. Since i bought a car with stripped spider, side gears in the rear end i can only imagine what it went through its last few days on the road. With the rear differential cover off i saw the sprockets skipping just by turning the rear wheel by hand. So you think i should remove the bar that mounts up around the rear shocks that crosses the differential cover? Your calling this the upper control arm right? Sounds like i wont be able to pull it out of the transmission now if this is my problem "twisted splines"[:'(]

roundman

that bar is the rear sway bar and I'm not talking about that. the upper control arms are mounted on either side of the pumpkin with big bushings at the rear end and small ones where they attach to the chassis in the upper torque box. you might be able to get the shaft out if you jack up the car body and let the rear end hang down with the u-joint unbolted. try this first before you take the upper arms loose as this might be lots easier. you can also loosen the rear mount on the tranny and push up on it to get some more movement that might give you enough space to get the driveshaft away from the pinion flange. you sure you can't use a large crow bar and pry the shaft toward the tranny and get it to move in enough to drop down????

Trannyman

If you are still having problems, something else you might want to try is knocking the ujoint apart at the transmission end. This is a trick I use for removing tranny's from T-birds. Just remove the internal clips on each side of the yoke and find a socket that is about the same size as the ujoint caps. Knock the ujoint up, rotate drive shaft, remove cap then knock it back through the other way and remove the other cap. You should be able to remove the driveshaft at this point.

And, like roundman said, check those splines. Inspect the yoke, make sure it isn't gouged or grooved and maybe check the bushing in the tail housing.