The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Driveshaft question

55.1 , 3100 , 235 , T5 . will the stock 55.1 driveshaft work or will i need something custom ? i don't have the stock shaft to check.

The 1955 first series 1/2 ton could have a standard 3 speed but the truck could also have had the optional heavy duty 3 speed, 4 speed or Hydramatic transmission. The length of the driveshaft (propeller shaft) varies for the type transmission and I don't have these lengths available. It really doesn't matter. Your plans are to modify so you want to measure yourself rather than guess.

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You may need to have a driveshaft made for you...or you may be able to find a longer one and shorten it. If you shorten a longer one, I'd have somebody do it that can balance it and knows what they're doing. Be certain to get the right tailshaft for the T5 and expect to use 2 different styles of u-joints (one for transmission and one for the differential). A driveshaft which is not balanced can be really irritating at just about any speed and especially over about 35mph. You'd be amazed how intensely they can shake and that isn't good for u-joints, transmissions, your peace of mind or anything else. Good luck!

I guess that's me building a driveshaft :-) I was hoping that with a few thousand of these trucks running around with a T5 trans that there would be a known common driveshaft spec.

JonG On my run of the mill driveshafts I find that if the yoke is square and sraight in the tube it will be pretty smooth. Learned to use a srobe light wheel balancer to fine tune it if needed. This was watching it in the lathe before welding,have done about a pickup load since about 1966. That was just doing one end mostly.

There are generally no bolt in parts for modified vehicles but you may get lucky. The driveshaft out of a 55-57 car and a 55-59 truck with a 3 speed is about 54" C/L to C/L. The 3 speed trans is about 22 1/2" which is close to the later 5 speed. You would need the fine spline front yoke to match your conversion trans. There should be some of these around that have been removed for upgrades and conversions.
Fred