Hey guys, I'll try and keep this short. Recently my 87 SE had bad U-joints, so I had to pick up a new (used) driveshaft. I got the old driveshaft out with no problem (except a sliced finger ). But I'm having a real problem getting the new one to spline up with the tranny. Are there any tricks to this? It doesn't help that I'm working on it myself. What the big problem seems to be, is the shaft will slide where it needs to go, but only like 1/2" or so, then it feels like something is stopping it from moving any further. At first I thought it was the spline not lining up, but I've spinned the damn thing around all the way and it just won't move any more frontwards(towards the front of the car). Any ideas? Sorry for the long post, and my description....not the best. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I also thought it might be the new driveshaft, so I tried re-installing the old one, and it was doing the same thing, couldn't get that one back on either. Thanks.

 

Remove the exhaust heat shield then take a flashlight and look at the tailshaft of the transmission. You will probably find something *is* shoved in their and preventing the shaft from seating all the way. Most likely, this is the remenants of your output shaft seal. That seal should be replaced when the shaft is replaced anyway.

 

Should I just get it out with a pair of needle nose pliers? (I don't want to damage the output shaft). Thanks for your help.

PS--Nice avatar....I just happened to watch Fight Club last night.

 

You can pry it out with a screwdriver pretty easily. Don't worry about damaging the shaft too much. It is highly hardened steel.

 

Thanks for all your help Aaron. It went in nice and smoothly. Guess it was just a bad angle with that damn heat shield on. Thanks again.