56 Stepside,
The Wrench is correct. Try to give years, model, and further part desciptions (56Stepside, hmmm?). Anyway, is it long short wheelbase. It helps. For instance I will follow with trick for single piece u joint. If there is two piece to your drive shaft you may need to drop carrier bearing.
Maybe try this before removing the caps as the Wrenchbender suggests.
Make sure truck wheels are chocked and trans is in neutral. You should be able to hold the u joint caps on with one hand while pushing up and rotating the drive shaft with the other. You should only have to rotate it about 90 degrees. You too should have some fore and aft play with the tail of the trans and the drive shaft yoke too. Even if this rotating trick works you will still have to push the shaft aft ; ) to place the uj caps in thier pinion yoke cradle. THis is a trick to as the u bolts are long enough to require the drive shaft pushed forward to clear enough to insert into the pinion yoke, or inststalled prior.
This is assuming you have a single piece drive shaft and the rear u joint to pinion yoke.
I am not a big fan of removing those caps... once one of those needle bearings lies down inside there, the u joint wont fit it's in it's yoke cradle. It can be done and is sometimes necessary, but never been optimal for me.
One last thought... if the truck is lowered, your trans tal and drivve shaft slip will be reduced. In this case jack up the rear on the frame and let the diffy hang loose. This might give you some more fore and aft movement.
you should press and hammer only if replacing the joint.
I think there is a picture of my drive shaft install on the rear end stuff of my fliker site.
If there is two piece to your drive shaft you may need to drop carrier bearing.
Hope it helps,
Brett
Brett
