Carrier bearing question
 

I have just acquired a '65 C20 that is pretty butchered up. On the drive home I suspected the carrier bearing was bad and after checking it's looks like it has been "fixed" before. I know how to do the work I just don't know what it is supposed to look like. Here is a couple of pics taken from the rear. If anyone has a picture of a correct install please post it because this one doesn't look right to me! I think this has been this way for quite a while because the slip spline on the rear shaft is really sloppy.

Re: Carrier bearing question
 

It looks like someone made their own bearing conversion kit.

http://www.classicperform.com/Store/...Truck/CSBC.htm

Re: Carrier bearing question
 

I had a similar situation and I went to a single piece driveshaft, thus eliminating the two-piece shaft and the carrier bearing. It was $160.00 for a new custom built one-piece shaft and peace-of-mind over it failing sometime in the future.

If you chose to repair yours, they are available at many of the aftermarket parts suppliers, including:

www.lmctruck.com
www.classicparts.com
www.oldchevytrucks.com
www.bowtiebits.com
www.truckandcarshop.com

Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

Re: Carrier bearing question
 

I have a one piece in my 62 long bed and no matter what I do I can't get it to stay in balance, its a new shaft been balanced 2 times, its just way too long at 66 inches, I have a later 2 piece I was going to install, has anyone else had this issue ??

Re: Carrier bearing question
 

That style of the carrier bearing is supposed to be mounted to the bottom of the trailing arm crossmsmber and on the front side of it. There will have to be a flat bracket installed on the crossmember in order to do so. Here are a couple of pics of how the factory installed them. IMO these are the best carrier bearing to use. Those cheesy ones that hang from the top are just junk and are the ones that everyone has trouble with. Get yourself a new bearing and mount it properly and you'll have no troubles with your 2 piece driveshaft.

Re: Carrier bearing question
 

I am going to go with a one piece also in my 66. I just don't care for that two piece one. I am also going to put a 700R4 tranny so that will be much longer then the power glide that was in there.

Re: Carrier bearing question
 

A one-piece driveshaft over 40" require a larger diameter pipe, in lieu of the smaller diameter, as found in the two-piece driveshaft. While spinning at high speed, the smaller diameter driveshafts will rotate out of axis and begin to wobble and may actually come apart. When going to a longer shaft, the larger diameter shaft will keep the shaft spinning in axis, due to the larger cross section. I believe the new one I had fabricated was over 40" and under 55" and was approximately 4" in diameter. I didn't measure it, so I am not sure of the actual diameter or length.

Re: Carrier bearing question
 

Lots of newer lwb trucks have one piece driveshafts with turbo 400s , but like tony said bigger diameter

Re: Carrier bearing question
 

Thanks guys for all the info. I think I'll go with the Classic Performance solution. It looks pretty stout. I'll post how it all turns out.