ya i got the drive shaft off of the car by undoing the yolk at the rear end and then sliding the tail stock out! then i removed the c clips and laid the drive shaft down on the work bench and put a smaller OLD socket on the cap and pounded it with a hammer! till she came loose! the yolk one came off easy the tail stock was a pain in the @$$ !I'm going to napa to get the u joints tomorrow! and will finish it up then!
ya just about everyone forgot about the 45.5 center to center! i was starting to panic! thinking i got the wrong one! cause its marked 42.5 on the drive shaft but that measurement is from weld to weld! not center to center like needed! but yes i have the right one and that sucker will be installed and driving tomorrow! the car comes off the road on NOV 1st so i want to at least take it for a little spin before i put her away! but if its raining i wont be able to ! i dont drive it in the rain either! lol
OK drive shaft install complete!!! took it out for a quick boot around the block everything seems OK! no noises no leaks and no vibrations! so I'm thinking everything is OK! for those of you in Canada looking at doing this swap i will provide you with some info so you dont have to go through the same crap as i did with the u joints! first your going to need a rear drive shaft out of a 91,92,93 aerostar AWD and yes it has to be all wheel drive good luck finding one! but if you do the drive shaft should measure from center of u joint to center of u joint 45 1/2" , once you have that you need new u joints! for those of you in the states its napa part #353 for those of you in canada its napa part #1-0134BF ! once you have that stuff its just a straight swap! old one for new one! it took me awhile to find the correct u joints from the Canadian napa but i did ! so now you wont have to search like i did! now that its done it time to relax! and have a beer or 2!
Nice work FastFord!!! I have followed your progress and it has motivated me to try and do what you did. Thanks for the updates and getting all the parts /numbers down for us. I'm glad your swap worked well for you and hope I can get as lucky. We only have a small junkyard around here so I'm not expecting much, but worth a shot.
You're the man!!!!!
Ken
hey Ken thanks !alot of the time i thought i was talking to myself ...lol ! i was wondering if anyone was paying attention! i guess someone was! it was fairly easy to do the swap ! it was finding the right part # here in Canada! that was a pain and many trips to napa for the u joint only to find out it was the wrong part! but i knew if i kept trying id hit it eventually! and i did! so i might as well post it all so no one else has to got through all the things i had to do to get it right! and that's what were here for anyway to help each other out if we can! good luck with your swap ! i hope you can find one and if you have any questions you can PM me! if needed! CHEERS from Canada! James
I have never done that...no problems yet. Maby if I were just using a wrench but I have a 12 point 12mm swivel impact socket lol makes them nice and tight
There's a few things i'm curious about with this swap...
1, is the Aerostar shaft itself rated to the same torque levels as their Motorsport version that they sell for Mustangs....otherwise the only gains i can see would be a slight loss in weight/rotating mass and the better dampening of vibrations that aluminum shafts typically provide,
2, how strong are the parts store universals you bought? These may end up being the big weak link, and if your car is making a reasonable amount of power and you ever race on slicks, you better get yourself a drive shaft loop....
I'm not knocking this idea AT ALL, i'm all for it....i'm just curious. I've always got my eye open for an AWD Aerostar, they're just very uncommon around here.
they are just as strong as the ford motor sport drive shafts only less money! someone on here said they have one on there drag car and never had problems with it! so I'm guessing it should hold up to a reasonable amount of horsepower a street car can make! ill let you know! LOL I'm putting out about 350-425 if she snaps ill be the first one on here saying dont do it! lol my car is also not a drag car i dont race it ! its a weekend toy to cruise around in when the weather permits during the summer! Ive just built a powerful street car not a drag racer on slicks so I'm not worried about any of that! my car has been down the 1/4 maybe 6-7 times! since Ive had it! and Ive had it since new!
so I was at the wreckers today....seen 4 AWD areostars and all were 1994. I asked the owner (who is also a friend) too look into his cross reference book and see what years are the same. He said 91-96 were the same
if it wasn't raining I would have took the time to grab a few. I know there is 4 for sure and I don't know how many I didn't see
yea....your a little far to come help change some u-joints to make a few dollars lol....I am going to grab them some time. I might make them bolt in ready or just sell them with the instructions and part numbers they need for UJ's