Drive shaft rebuild.

[Firemanray]

The rear driveshaft on my crawler has taken a beating to the point that the center line is out by more than an inch. I'm afraid it's going to twist off sometime at a critical point, soooo, I decided to re-tube the shaft myself. I didn't want to put this in my build thread because it would probably get lost.

I've never tried this before but I've seen it done. The first thing that needs to be done is check the "clocking" of the shaft and the length. Write this stuff down! You'll be in a mess if you don't! The shaft in this thread has a u-joint on one end and splines on the other. I made notes of how the splines lined up with the "ears" on the u-joint. I then measures the overall length.

This is what I started with:
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd11/firemanray21/20150203_143357_zpsa19769f2.jpg (http://s223.photobucket.com/user/firemanray21/media/20150203_143357_zpsa19769f2.jpg.html)

Next step is to separate the shaft ends from the tube. The tube in this case is .083 thick. I used the porta-band saw to cut through the tube all the way around the shaft right where the tube and the end meet.
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd11/firemanray21/20150203_143406_zps6428335c.jpg (http://s223.photobucket.com/user/firemanray21/media/20150203_143406_zps6428335c.jpg.html)

The ends are press fit into the tube so after I cut the weld I had to tap around the ends until they came out.
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd11/firemanray21/20150205_114622_zps58c902a3.jpg (http://s223.photobucket.com/user/firemanray21/media/20150205_114622_zps58c902a3.jpg.html)
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd11/firemanray21/20150205_114635_zps227bfc10.jpg (http://s223.photobucket.com/user/firemanray21/media/20150205_114635_zps227bfc10.jpg.html)

Here's a shot down the tube after the ends were removed. It looks like it's been in a major hail storm:
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd11/firemanray21/20150205_114558_zpsa06694e3.jpg (http://s223.photobucket.com/user/firemanray21/media/20150205_114558_zpsa06694e3.jpg.html)

[Firemanray]

Next step is to cut the tube perfectly square on each end AND get the correct length. I used a horizontal band saw.
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd11/firemanray21/20150205_114701_zpsa52417f5.jpg (http://s223.photobucket.com/user/firemanray21/media/20150205_114701_zpsa52417f5.jpg.html)

Since the tube is press fit it is rather difficult to insert the ends into the tube.
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd11/firemanray21/20150205_115431_zps64259461.jpg (http://s223.photobucket.com/user/firemanray21/media/20150205_115431_zps64259461.jpg.html)

The fire wrench comes in handy to swell the tube just enough to fit the ends into place.
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd11/firemanray21/20150205_115442_zps035cfa41.jpg (http://s223.photobucket.com/user/firemanray21/media/20150205_115442_zps035cfa41.jpg.html)

Next I verified that the ends were clocked correctly before starting the weld. Here's the shaft just prior to welding.
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd11/firemanray21/20150205_115839_zps7d83ed44.jpg (http://s223.photobucket.com/user/firemanray21/media/20150205_115839_zps7d83ed44.jpg.html)

The final step is to weld the ends to the tube. I used the smaller welder (Millermatic 175) with .025 wire. This allowed me to weld it slow and steady.
http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd11/firemanray21/20150205_120905_zps0f668aaf.jpg (http://s223.photobucket.com/user/firemanray21/media/20150205_120905_zps0f668aaf.jpg.html)

I wouldn't try this on a street shaft because I have no way to balance it but I know it will be better than the wobbly thing I was running.

I replaced the dry u-joint, painted, and re installed, ready to go!

[XJ Wheeler]

That's cool Ray. Let us know how it does for ya.