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I put a Nova clip on a 49 Suburban. Engine is 454 with TH400 tranny. Dropped it in this weekend & hooray it all fits!! Now I need to find a driveshaft that is 61 inches long. Does anyone know of a table anywhere which shows driveshaft lengths? I hate to have to crawl under umpteen cars at a U Pull It yard. Also has anyone taken one that is too long and had it cut to length at a driveshaft shop?

I had a similar setup and used one from a V8 Nova and actually placed the motor/tranny to make it fit. Broke the rear U-Joint during a show-off run and wound up replacing the shaft with another that was shortened to make it the right lenght. SO . . . either way will work depending on the order with which you place your engine location.

Yes, you can have them shortened, no sweat. I have actually done it myself (when I worked in a machine shop ).

Measure from U-Joint flange center of rear axle to center of U-Joint mounting in the slip yoke of your tranny. Make sure your slip yoke is all the way forward in trans. and deduct 1 1/4"- 1 1/2" ( minimum is one inch!). That is your final dimension.

An El Camino (preferably '67-'72) is a good donor car.......it has a long driveshaft (not sure about 61", but it probably is!) .

Find a wrecking yard that removes the driveshafts and has them in a pile or rack---measure input shaft yoke-probabally 3" accross yoke and check rear differential probabally the same --and find correct length driveshaft--with same measurement yoke.Don't forget to leave yourself an inch or inch and a half so driveshaft don't bottom out in trans tailshaft or too short as to allow to fall out.Generally you can see wear mark where input shaft has been riding in seal,good hunting.

Thanks guys for the input. Since I've already sett the motor/trans in place the driveshalf will have to be where the delta is handled. Don't think I'll make Montana this year as too many things to do and not enough weekends!!

Thanks guys for the input. Since I've already sett the motor/trans in place the driveshalf will have to be where the delta is handled. Don't think I'll make Montana this year as too many things to do and not enough weekends!!