Alright, this is what I plan to do. I am building up my '97 Ranger with a solid front axle and plan on adding a divorce t-case behind my existing BW 1354 t-case. I will need to use a passenger side drop front axle for this to work. The front driveshaft would be very long and hang down to far if I was to run the front driveshaft directly to the front diff. In order to not bash my front driveshaft I was wondering if I could use a two-piece front drive shaft to give me more clearance underneath and also so my front axle linkage would be located where I want. The first shaft would come off the divorced t-case parallel with the ground, supported by a center bearing. Then the 2nd piece would angle down to the front diff.

Will this setup work? I can see the weak point being the u-joint where the two shafts come together. If I use a CV style shaft, would this help.

Dean

No reason it shouldn't work. Look at most any long wheel base truck for proper phasing of U-joints, carrier bearing, etc. It may be easiest to buy two piece shaft from wrecking yard and modify to suit your application. Trucks usually mount the carrier bearing in some sort of rubber bushing, thus avoiding a second slip section for the shaft.

If the angles are slight, and you can split the total angle with the rear piece (may not make it paralell to ground) then you might be able to get away with NO CV joints.

A double cardin joint is just this, with a joint that causes the short piece to automatically split the angle. If you can get close to that with your (real) two-piece shaft, then the rear piece of the shaft is effectivly a CV joint. Rangers had this built into the transfer case.

If you can't split the total angle, then you may need a double cardin joint at the rear of BOTH pieces however...depends on how far your engine/transmission is angled downward at the rear.

It sounds to me like you are making the swap harder then it has to be. Why not just swap in a Ford SA, with a driver side drop, then take two 1350/54 t-cases, and slap them together? I am currently pondering this t-case idea, but haven't got much further than that.......think about it.

Brian--

Yes I am making this slightly harder on myself, but doing a dual BW1354/1350 t-case would require a lot of machining and $$$ which I can't do. Anyways, I can clock to divorce case to gain more clearance, than if I was to mate two together.

I am going to use the short rear shaft which already has the center bearing mounted on it and build a new crossmember to support that. I don't have to change the yokes because the u-joints are the same size. I may just have it lengthened some though.

I finally have the divorce case and have the Dana 44 mocked into position up front, so now I can start figuring out the angles.

Thanks for your help.
Dean