I am swapping a 440 into my 318 E-body. I have a 8 3/4" rear. I bought a big block yoke (7290) for my 489 third member. The auto part stores offer two different U-joints (big or small yoke). How are these U-joints different? Is there a BB driveshaft that I should be looking for or can I reuse my driveshaft?


Thanks!!

 

if i rember right it varys by car? some use bigger u joints, but you can keep your stock driveshaft and use a combination u joint 2 ends small two ends bigger

 

Mango -

Definite maybe. The BB will have a different tranny (bell housing) and the overall length might be different. When I switched from a 318 to a 440 in my Charger, I needed a LONGER drive shaft to fully engage the tranny spline. Yes, the rear U-joints may be different too, but that's not usually a problem as when doing the conversion, unless you get very lucky, it's a good idea to have a custom drive shaft made, or your old one "re-built" to the new specs. That's what I did.

Archer

 

I'm pretty sure a small block tail shaft and big block tail shaft are different lengths.

you'll just need a completely new trans, and drive line. I'd suggest having a brand new one built with brand new u-joints. The 1050 ones is what I run.

Then you really don't need to worry about breaking anything behind the transmission.

 

Heres a FAQ site from Dennysdriveshafts. http://www.dennysdriveshaft.com/freq...questions.html This should help you with some questions. It explains u-joint sizes too.

 

You're right about the larger yoke/u-joints.
The change from small to large coincides with the engine size and the change came at the 383.
The 383 with a 2 barrel came with the small u-joints and the 383 with the 4 barrel came with the large u-joints and yokes. The step up to the large stayed through the 440 range.