1450 drive shaft length ?

[clint]

No pictures, however I finished my drive shaft today. I had to make another one of course... Anyway I did not have to pull the transmission, I made the shaft with around 1/16" space between the front of the shaft, and the motor, I slid all the mounting hardware on the shaft except the ball, then put the shaft in with the ball, I then slid the rear cast piece over the transmission shaft/ball. Doing it that way I had no problems at all, no need to pull the motor or rear to do the shaft which was a big relief for me. Also I did not measure the exact length of the shaft, however I did make it longer than the factory shaft, I didn't see any harm in doing so, it also gave me more room/error to work with. I thought about making the shaft the exact length between the motor, and the transmission shaft/ball, however I think if any flex occurs, even heat would cause a load on the pump shaft causing wear/seal heat and that would cause problems. I will snap a picture tomorrow, I'm really proud of it, looks great with the stainless... and I will never have to worry about the pitted rusty mess again.

Now I normally do things right, I should have sand blasted the cast pieces, and couplers etc, and painted them, however I don't have a lot of cash right now, and that's that.

One more note, I had two stainless shafts to work with, if you ever order a stainless shaft DO NOT get a hardened shaft, I melted a ceramic insert turning the hardened shaft, it was also not the correct diameter, so you would never get it as good as the factory ground bearing shaft by turning it, even though I was just turning the ends. All I had to do was remove .005 from the shaft, however when I was facing the shaft it was hardened all the way through.

Thanks for all the help, and pictures, and the fan picture really helped as well, now I just need to order some stainless spiral roll pins from mcmaster to call this job 100% finished.

Clint