Painful Front Driveshaft Install and Removal

[beanious]

Hello everyone, I've got a 71 K10 that I swapped to a 700R4. If I want to pull the tx pan to say replace the filter or replace ujoints in the driveshaft it's a huge pain to pull the (4) bolts holding the driveshaft from the double cardan to the 205 transfer case yoke. You know those bolts that you have to spin 1/32 of a turn and then flip the wrench and it takes you a half hour to get four of them out! I was poking around the summit site and found a replacement set of ARP bolts that have a 3/8 12 point head instead of 1/2 and are the exact same length and threads. It made it to where with an extension, universal and ratchet I can tighten them from under the truck instead of having to put my hands up over the driveshaft near the transfer case shifter mechanism. I was even able to use a torque wrench on them, which I was never able to do and just guessed they were tight enough. Total time to install the front driveshft was 15 minutes with a helper locking and unlocking the hubs. I hated to do this job and now it's a breeze, just wanted to pass it along to the community.

[beanious]

[beanious]

Summit part number:
ARP-741-1250
Price as of 20210928: $10.99

[kwmech]

Nice, thanks for the heads up. With all the 4xs I work on this will be helpful. buy 4 sets and service 5 trucks

[beanious]

I just got the reference, they come in a pack of five. Ha, awesome 😄

[57taskforce]

Awesome info. Those bolts are a real pain in the ass no doubt. My arm starts falling asleep long before they are all out. I’ll have to give these a try.

[Dieselwrencher]

Thanks for the tip! They sure a pain especially when you tossed the drive shaft and the truck is buried in a drift.

[kwmech]

I get the final 'torque' on these bolts by locking down the wrench on something solid and twisting the driveshaft with a long screwdriver. Same with coming off

[beanious]

I always noticed that not only do my arms go numb but I'm in a position where I'm stuck in a half situp position the whole time my back hurts and for a day after. No more! It's funny that so many people have experienced the same thing 😁

[yuccales]

Originally Posted by beanious

I always noticed that not only do my arms go numb but I'm in a position where I'm stuck in a half situp position the whole time my back hurts and for a day after. No more! It's funny that so many people have experienced the same thing 😁

Thank goodness my trucks start with a C! Nice of you for passing that on to the K guys.