As FedEx is likely to do, they delivered the Lower a day early. Saturday rather that Monday. So, like a kid in a candy store the box was ripped open and work began. The first and only, "WHAT!", came when I noticed a 3/8" spacer sliding around loose on the new shaft. A quick check on the internet said that the spacer is to go between the firewall and the U-joint. No surprise, fact, a big plus. I've been trying to figure out how to make just such a spacer .....WINNER!
The old shaft came out, no problem. The new shaft had all the set screws removed and lock tited in place. For those that are nervous of the set screws. The firewall end set screw goes all the way through the main shaft. That bad boy ain't going anywhere. The splines were nice and tight and the tops set screw went right into the relief milled into the top shaft and the bottom went right into the divot machined in the power steering splined shaft. Almost done ..... OOPS the shaft touches the headers. The stock one did too, but this is worse. So what to do? Start the engine to heat the headers from the inside, grab the butane torch to heat from the outside. Fairly quickly there was a nice red hot spot on the header pipe. It only took a few taps with a steel bar to produce a proper sized dent in the header pipe. Actually easier than expected.
The CJ was buttoned up and we hit the road for a test drive. So far, I like it, I like it a lot. ...... Another fix to cross of the ol' list.