After putting the 3 speed manual toploader in the car I noticed that the driveshaft might be a touch on the short side. The driveshaft does reach but it doesn't appear to have much spline on spline contact. From my understanding it is the original driveshaft from the car. Is a toploader 3 speed a little shorter than a C4? For clarification: 74 2 door maverick 302 / 3 speed mustang top loader 9" rear end No major alteration to chassis or body, etc etc etc. Anyone have stock measurement of the driveshaft? Previous owner had a 4 speed top loader in it previously...... I thought the 4 speed and 3 speed were the exact same length?????? If its longer I might have an altered or different driveshaft to make up for that. Thanks
I have a drive shaft from a 200 with 3 speed on the column, and one from 200 with C4. Both are the same length. I can't get the measurements till I get home. The 3 speed yoke is shorter though.
Fords 4-speed transmissions came with either a 14", 15-1/2" or 17" long tailshaft. The rear yoke were longer on some 9" rears. BTW, Ford never made a Posi...G.M. did. Ford was called a Traction-Loc and Equa-Lock. All 3 are positive traction.
I just checked the measurements of 3 OEM driveshafts that I kept from previously owned Mav/Comets, they are all 46 1/2" from center to center of driveshafts eyes. all from 302 cars, 71 Comet GT w/Toploader 3 speed 73 Comet w/C4 74 Comet w/C4 keep in mind that if you changed from 8 inch rear to 9 inch, driveshaft length may have to be modified too, I had to shorten my driveshaft when I installed my 9 inch. There are also different lengths pinion yokes to, 2 more common are just shorter and longer. no differences in lengths between Toploader 3 or 4 speed..... One other possiblity, depending on what Toploader 4 speed was installed, there where 3 different length tailshafts, having overall lengths of 24" from early Must/Cougar/Falcon which is a straight swap, 27" from full sized cars like Galaxie and 25 1/2" from Fairlaines etc......so depending on which 4 speed you had, could mean that your driveshaft may have been shorten...
Yeah I know its just a bad habit and an overly used common term to call them all posi since most people wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about if you said traction-loc or equa-lock.
I have to get up underneath of the car today and measure it out and see what I get. I'm guessing with the info you guys gave me that the previous owner had the 27" 4 speed tail shaft version and shortened the driveshaft. Hopefully its just shortened and I can pick up the correct length one on the cheap and give me some piece of mind.
