Below are pictures of a driveshaft removed from a 1997 ford crown
victoria police interceptor
This driveshaft is aluminum which minimizes corrosion in relation to
the steel driveshaft used in civilian crownvics.
Here's the slip yoke. If you're purchasing a salvage yard driveshaft,
watch for corrosion on this part.
The lubed-for-life u-joints in these driveshafts seem to have a good
long service life, often going over 150k miles without any problems.
Some pictures of a 1998 crown victoria police cruiser with the
driveshaft still installed
The rear tailshaft of the transmission, transmission crossmember, and
the front passenger's floorpan
The floorpan shown here is where the front seat bolts attach and where
the front passenger's feet would normally rest.
Here's the differential flange, the two exhaust system mufflers and the
part of the floorpan under the rear passengers.
Here you can see the trunk floorpan, differential, evaporative
emissions box, and various other components
To remove the differential flange bolts a 12mm 12-point socket is used
The car from the rear behind the differential. If you look closely, you
can see part of the driveshaft
The differential mounting flange from the back. And yes, this car needs
new rubber muffler hanger insulators installed.
Here's the front passenger's seat crash reinforcement bracket where the
passenger's seatbelt latch attaches.Also note the words "POLICE"
written on the driveshaft.
If you source your driveshaft from the local salvage yard, do be aware
that the slip yoke will have some surface rust on it if the driveshaft
has been removed from the transmission for a while. Here are a couple
pictures taken by Steve83
on www.crownvic.net showing some surface corrosion on this part.
In this picture two slip yokes are shown. The one attached to the
aluminum driveshaft is from a police interceptor. The one attached to a
steel driveshaft is from a civilian crownvic.
Do note that if you are upgrading a 1992-1994 crownvic with the AODE
transmission to a police interceptor aluminum driveshaft, you will need
to use a driveshaft from a 1992-1994 crownvic due to the different
diameter of the slip yoke where it inserts into the transmission. If
you really want to use a 1995-2010 driveshaft in your 1992-1994
crownvic, you can also replace the transmission extension housing in
your 1992-1994 car with one from a 1995-2002 crownvic that has the
proper diameter slip yoke holes in it. Starting in the 2003 model year,
ford decontened the vehicle speed sensor (vss) so you cannot use a
2003+ extension housing in an earlier car because the mounting hole for
the vss is not there. You can however use a 2003+ driveshaft with the
earlier 1995-2002 extension housings.