Drive Shaft removal - should be easy, right?

[drieseck]

Glad you got it solved. Thanks for posting your findings and results.

[roadsterdude1600]

Just to tie a bow on this thread. When I went to reinstall the drive shaft it was really hard to push back in. Very tight. I examined the spline and while everything looked OK, it felt a little rough on one side. I used emory cloth, and a pop cycle stick, then lubed everything up nicely, and still it was not a slip together deal. I finally pulled a shaft off of a parts car and it slipped right on. So I changed out the new U joints I had installed on the existing driveshaft, painted up the junker and am now back in business. Still a mystery, but moving on. A real pain changing those u-joints, but back together now.

[jrusso07]

Glad to hear you got the car back up and running. On the tight shaft a couple of thoughts.

1) The splined section may be oblong and not a good circle due to a sloppy fit or gross imbalance and it got "hammered". If you have calipers, you can make some measurements around the circumference.
2) Might have some curvature/size reduction in some of the splines - see pic below

IMG_1177.jpg