Replace U-joint in 2 piece, or extend 1 piece?

[Speedwagon]

'87 Brat, I did the 5 speed swap in. I'm currently using the 2 piece driveshaft, but the rear U-joint has seen better days. I swapped it out already with another one, but the one I put in there is showing its age as well.

 

$110 to have a driveshaft shop replace the U-joint with a greasable unit, but that is per joint. Or I can take them the one piece I have, and extend it(about $140 to extend).

 

What are you opinions on which is the better option?

[doobieryan]

Extending the one piece is your better option. Less u joints to worry about and no vibration from the carrier bearing that is almost impossible to mount perfectly. I plan on doing the 5 speed swap soon and i plan on extending my driveline also.

[idosubaru]

i would totally go with one piece unit just for the fact that it's simple and fewer parts. one less carrier bearing and two less ujoints. but i've always wondered how stable that is? i think i asked once before but part of me just wonder what keeps that thing sealed up inside the transmission, seems like something could go wrong. but i think older brats or some other subaru has a one piece unit.

 

you'll loose a bit of clearance in that area as the driveshaft immediately begins to angle down as opposed to stock where it goes through the carrier first.

[LeoneTurbo]

Interesting... I will be doing a 5-sp EJ swap this summer but wondered about getting the 2-piece drive shaft as I thought it would be better for high speed driving (less vibrations) but apperantly I should also stick with the 1-piece shaft and have it extended. How much extension (preferrably in mm but inch will also do ) are we looking at from EA 4-sp to EJ 5-sp?

[doobieryan]

I don't think having the ej will make a difference in the driveline length, but it seems like i remember hearing that the driveline needed to be 117 centimeters

[bratsrus1]

Hi This is Jerry, to lenghten you stock drive line you need 51 inches of tubing and it will fit your brat. I have done this many times over. Thanks Jerry

[Twitch de la Brat]

When I did my 5sp swap I went with a 1 piece driveline.

The shop I went with quoted me about $170 to extend the driveshaft or about

the same to build me a whole new one.

I highly recommend going the all new route, as it will give you greasable

U-joints and brand new parts all around.

 

As for vibration, I don't notice any from the driveshaft, the bad axle and ball

joints on the other hand...

 

And the length for a one piece driveshaft is exactly the same as the 2 piece.

So just measure your driveshaft from the middle of the front U-joint to the

mounting plate on the end and tell the shop doing to how long it is from those two points.

I believe mine was 56", or in metric 56*2.54=142.24cm.

And yes that was all mental math

 

Twitch

 

PS: it was while ago that I did my swap so my numbers may be off

[LeoneTurbo]

I guess I will just have the measure then... I will measure the length of engine + transmission from the engine mounts in the subframe right to the end of the transmission where the prop shaft goes, for both EA 4-sp and EJ 5-sp and I will post the numbers here, maybe today if stops raining...

[ShawnW]

I have one you can measure that was made for the swap.

[sumoco]

sorry for the resurrection but did anyone get the exact numbers?