1957 Cadillac 2-piece driveshaft. adapting to 1971 caddy th400 trans adapting to 1971 1/2 ton chevy t-12bolt rear. I have a yoke given to me but can't identify it. It uses nylon thread locks for u-joint caps. Small town parts house and I are scratching our heads trying to match up front and rear joints. Anyone with knowledge on this (or these) matters? Thanks!
You need measurements of all 4 bearing cap diameters, the measurement across the joint in both directions, and if it has inside/outside clips. Take those numbers and find a parts store that has books with specifications. You may have to use 2 joints to build one. CN
Two ways to do this : 1 Ponder and study the parts books and find something. The turbo 400 end should be easy. 2 Head to a drive shaft shop. I'd give 90% chance they know exactly what you need as soon as you walk in the door. 100% you'll leave with everything you need at least ordered. If the yokes have nylon inserts, those are heated out and never thought of again. Your replacement joint will have steel locks either inside or outside. The cap diameter on the rear end is critical to be the correct dimension as the wrong ones will fit. The others will either fit or not.
Ahhh, the old "common sense" approach! One gets caught up out here in the rural and tries to do everything from this point. I'll find a shop in Omaha/Lincoln and schedule a trip down. Thanks for clearing the smoke.
If the rearend is a 12 bolt, and the trans a TH400 (regardless of BOP or Chevy) then you need 1350 joints on both ends. Never seen a TH400 or a 12 bolt that didn't use them.
If you're not familiar with the different series of u-joints it can seem pretty confusing but it's really fairly basic. Here's a good site with about all you need to determine what you have and what you need to adapt it. http://driveshaftspecialist.com/HTML%20measure/UJ%20ID%20Guide.html
Good info here. Click on the diagrams to se what you can learn http://www.dennysdriveshaft.com/how_to_measure.html