1st gen Tacoma one piece driveshaft information. ***important***

So I'll start by saying that I've looked through other threads and seen very little about the actual swap other than buy a driveshaft. Well I took my 2 piece to a local 4wd shop and had them cut the ends off and retube my shaft with the double cardan joint by the transfer case. As many may know, the DC joint has a flange where it used to bolt to the front section of the driveshaft, and I also found out the hard way that this flange pattern is different than the back of the transfer case (at least on my truck, 1996 Tacoma extended cab 2.7 4x4 auto). I made an interesting discovery tho, from looking at my spare trans and transfer case I have. The front driveshaft flange on the transfer case shares the same pattern as the DC joint and the flange is also interchangeable with the rear flange. All that is needed is to Waller out the hole on the flange of the DC joint to accept the lock nut that holds the flange (which protrudes maybe 1/8-1/4"). Once you do that, the DC joint will bolt directly to the back of the transfer case. As for the front driveshaft, swap the flange off of your old front section of rear driveshaft onto the front driveshaft and bolt it up to the flange and your good to go. Cost to get my shaft made was $180 which is well under the 500 or so for a woods driveshaft. I may have not explained too clearly so if you have any questions just drop them below.

 

Good post. Thanks for the write up.

 

Yep, any way I can help out by making my own mistakes haha