81 cougar question.

[SomeGuy]

So, I’m building an 82 fairmont. And the need for a few parts has come up, one of which being a drive shaft.

im also in the process of putting a 32 valve 4.6 in my sisters 69 mustang convertible. (Parents bought new, first car I ever rode in). So I liberated the drive shaft from that because she is planning an aluminum piece anyway.

but I found an 81 cougar sport coupe with a V8 in a local salvage yard and thought that I would just grab the drive shaft off of that and not sweat a combination I joint (later learned that was not a worry), so I bought it and brought it home. I didn’t have a tape measure with.

I ended up using the sister’s drive shaft because it has one of those double ujoint flanges on the rear and the over all length was like 55”. The drive shaft itself was 51.25 inches long, but the end had a pin and ball socket for the flange so I couldn’t use it.

I just looked up the wheelbase on the cougar. It’s the same as the fairmont. Why would it have a longer drive shaft? And more importantly, is the headliner going to work in my fairmont?? (Because to be fair, since the shifter linkage didn’t save my column shifter and the drive shaft didn’t work, I’m in to the headliner for $75)

[ZephyrEFI]

Difference in driveshaft length could be because of the transmission used, or because of the rear axle used. Many Boxy Foxes of that vintage used the 6.75 rear, mine included, which uses a different driveshaft than the 7.5.