Help me out here. Where is a double cardigan driveshaft length measured from? I wanna grab one tomorrow and wanna make sure I know what to look for.

 

double cardan is measured end to end. fully compressed. the difference compressed and expanded is about 3 inches so measure u-joint to u-joint and take away 1.5 to see what ds to see what size ds u need when compressed so when you install it it will be half compressed half expanded. and its cool to drive with just a ds in the front. just shift it to 4hi. which means you'll really be fwd.

 

Thanks for the help. For some reason I thought I read it was the inner joint butt hat make more sense. Can finally pick up a shaft that will fit tomorrow.

 

anytime, & good luck man! by the way, have you driven it with only the front shaft in yet? I'm curious on how it will handle only being fwd. lol, i might just have to go this route if my front ds is too short as well.

 

Yeah I've been drivin it FWD all week. It's get a pretty good shake at low speeds in the corners if uou give it enough gas, like its in 4wd, prolly cuz the alignment isn't sent for FWD. Gas mileage is amazing though! The over head console is reading 18+mpg when I usually pull 15 mpg. And it's a lol bit noisier power the front end. Over all not horrible but I wouldn't do it for an extended period of time.

 

Good thread. I'm getting a 4.5" lift soon and want to have the SYE done so I don't have to drop the T-case. Let us know how you make out with the replacement driveshaft!

 

Picked up a 96 ZJ shaft this morning. Ill be installing it when I get home after work this evening.

 

nice!

 

Got the zj shaft installed finally! Jeep is driving great some much smoother then in FWD. got rid of some vibrations I had too.

 

Good now you can help me when I do mine greg haha

 

what size shaft you end up going with?
and what lift do you have again?

 

Let me know when.

Got a 96 ZJ shaft, 31.875". My yoke to yoke distance was 33.5" so Im right in the middle.

 

Got a 96 ZJ shaft, 31.875". My yoke to yoke distance was 33.5" so Im right in the middle.[/QUOTE]

 

from the length that you gave for the drive shaft you picked up it looks like you got one of the export models, am i correct about that?

also im looking into doing this myself, i might be wrong but i think the rear drive shafts for the manuals are longer then the automatic. so are you runnign a auto or a 5 speed? and which did you pull your donor from?

 

Problem was my fault. I was originally looking at a H&T setup which is longer and the front auto shaft would work. But since I went with the Rugged Ridge SYE I needed a longer shaft. I got on from a late 90s Grand Cherokee, WJ i think? It fits right in the middle at 4.5" I could prolly use the front shaft in the rear if I were really in a bind out on a trail, but it only has like a 1/4-1/2" to spare.