I've searched this board for I dont know how long but cant seem to find what I'm looking for. I am somewhat regretting the decision to not change the output shaft on my 80e rebuild.

I am still using the bolt in yoke output shaft and was told to go ahead and use the long barrell th400 slip yoke. I picked that up and slid it into the trans. Completely bottomed out there is 1.75" of slip yoke exposed. Pull it out another 3/4" to 1" for driveline travel and thats 2.5" or so hanging out of the trans. This seems like it is way too much. The barrel is 6" long, 2" of counterbore, The splines on the output shaft are 1/2" past the tailshaft seal. The total spline engagement would be something around 2".

I saw a few people running the short slip yoke as well so I tried that one. It only bought me an extra 1/2" in the trans but that leaves only 1.75" of barrel inside the trans.

Are you guys running with over 2" of slip yoke out of the trans and 2" of spline engagement? What am I doing wrong here?

Also, the short yoke will work without shortening the driveshaft but I've got about 1/2 -3/4" of slip before the yoke bottoms out. How much does the shaft actually slip being lowered 6" in the rear with minimal travel?

 

Was just looking on WIT and they show a few different tail shaft housings for the 80e. The longest one being the truck housing. The trans I got came from a van. Its too late to go under the truck now but could it be that the van housing is considerably shorter than the truck housing which is why I am seeing so much exposed yoke?