Driveshaft sliding sleeve reinstall help

[Boris61]

Removed the driveshaft to service u joints and pulled the sliding sleeve behind flex disc off and expected to slide it back in easily when reinstalling. Not so easy! Is there a trick to this? How do I put this back in? I can't even get the shaft past the grease boot... And I have a spare driveshaft that I took it off of too just to see how it works and that one won't go back in even with the grease boot removed. Argh! Please help. Thanks!

[azruss]

sounds like your splines are not lined up. Have a rear wheel off the ground so you can rotate the drive shaft. The alignment has to be just right for it to slip in, so watch your angles to make sure they are lined up. You can also have a burr on one of the spines. wipe the grease out and run a scotchbrite pad along the spline to clean up any burrs.

[Boris61]

Thanks for the reply. I have the car on a lift so all four wheels are in the air. I'll try rotating wheels and cleaning up the splines. But I couldn't even get it to slide through the grease seal on the end. Maybe has hardened with age like all the other rubber? Any one know if replacements for this seal are available? I found something called a yoke seal on AR site (SKU: DR5-410) but it isn't shaped the same in the picture there. Maybe folded up for shipping?

[howard]

line it up and tap it with a rubber hammer. the end that goes on first is plastic & spring loaded once it opens a little it will slide on. seal is just a boot to keep dirt out , i made one from a wheel cyl boot.