Factory Drive Shaft Lengths

Table of Contents

For custom projects and conversions, you may require a different length drive-shaft. There were many differnet lengths of driveshaft used, to suit the different length vehicles, transmissions and engine location. The intent of this page is to show locate and identify the various driveshafts.

Pictures of Factory Shafts

Front (2f80b-d) Middle (2s80b) Rear (2f80b)

Measured Lengths

The following measurements have been taken from ‘stock’ vehicles (ie no suspension lifts that would effect the length). They have been taken with the car sitting on flat ground and are from flange-to-flange.

Drive-shafts are designed to compress and extend whilst in use, and hence these values are just the ‘nominal’ lengths.

The measurements are also for vehicles with the normal H233 rear diff. If you rear diff is the light duty C200 (not used in Australia) or the heavy duty H260, these may have different length pinions and hence different length drive-shafts.

Lastly, the middle/intermediate drive-shaft lengths have been excluded, because it’s ambiguous to measure. Use the ‘spider’ lengths from the service manual below. It can be presumed that a 5 speed middle shaft would be 100mm shorter than the 4 speed.

If you have updates or wish to update this table, please post in this Patrol4x4 Thread.

Vehicle Specifics Drive-shaft Length (mm)
Motor Body Gears Transfer Front Rear
L28 LWB 4 T100L (Divorced) 980 990
5
Auto
SWB 4 T130A (Attached) 595 745
5 695 645
P40 SD33 LWB UTE 4 670 1290
5 770 1190
SWB 4 670 670
5 770 570

Measurements in RED have been extrapolated by utilising known lengths, the service manual lengths (below) and also the wheelbase differences from Chapter 1 (GI) of the 1980 Service Manuals.

Service Manual Lengths

The following 2 tables have been taken from Chapter 12 (PD) of the 1980 Service Manual, and as such they only apply to 4 speed (and automatic) gearboxes. The ‘spider-to-spider’ lengths refer to the welded sections of tube (and the splice), it does not include the flexible joints and flanges on the ends.

The information in these tables is dubious, as it is not known what they are measuring (ie. compressed, nominal or extended length).

It has also been noticed that the normal SWB hardtop (normal Australian SWB) has the same drive-shaft lengths as the light duty high-roof hardtop, which has C200 rear. The heavy duty high-roof (H233) has different lengths.