Tonight's progress; Homemade driveshaft.
Had a CC driveshaft ready to put in, and noticed that the welded-side of the rag-joint was bent, and the launch-pin was very worn on one side. I spent a little while trying to tweak it back in line, and after spinning it, decided that even bent closer-to-square, it just wasn't going to run very true. Didn't have another one at my immediate disposal, and being the impatient candle-burner I am, I made a new one.
I grabbed a piece of 5/8" shaft stock, chucked it into the lathe, and turned the end down to create the 'anti-launch pin' segment which engages the centering hole of the rag-joint.
My first thought was to just make another steel plate, and drill it with three holes, then weld it onto my new shaft like the original, but decided that the reason why the factory shaft wasn't running true, was because the welding process pulled it out-of-square. Instead, I found that I had an extra rag-joint receptacle. I slipped it over the turned end...
And compared it to the hopeless-case...
Much better!
Now, in the stock arrangement, it's quite a task to get the shaft to go into, and out of the tractor. I want to be able to do it without having to disassemble the whole world... fortunately, there's quite a bit of depth to my U-joint configuration. So I run the shaft from the engine compartment, around the (hydraulic!) steering column, past the lift-cylinder, and into the U-joint yoke.
Notice- the shaft is fully bottomed against the U-joint's X-piece, but the front is well-clear of the rag joint- Plenty of room to install/remove the shaft. Notice- the U-joint's grease fitting is on the AFT side of the X-piece- this allows lots of space for the shaft to retract for launch-pin clearance.
But when I slide the shaft's anti-launch pin into the engine-coupler's receptacle and seat it down, the other end winds up flush with the inner face of the yoke. PERFECT!
And the answer you've all been waiting for... (or mebbie not)... the dimensions;