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Were there early M38 front driveshafts which did not have the screw on dust cover on the yoke?

The front driveshaft on my 52' M38 is worn at the slip yoke. While it still worked it was not tight and would flop around if you grabbed the shaft. I went to replace it with one out of my several M38 parts jeeps I have acquired over the years. The shaft we pulled out looks correct and the slip joint was good but it had some oddities. This shaft had a slightly smaller tube diameter and the grease fitting on the yoke was in the correct location, same as my original. However, this shaft did not have the provision for the screw on dust cover on the yoke. I also noted that the splines on the slip joint were different. My original shaft had two splines merged into one which only allows the shaft to be installed in one orientation (call it 0 degrees). The shaft I was looking to swap in does not have this feature on the splines/yoke and can be clocked at different angles.


Is there anything I can do to repair my M38 front driveshaft to keep its originality? I have one more parts M38 that I am going to investigate, it is probably in better condition if the shaft is still there.

Ryans book goes to great detail of every aspect of the M38,everything you want know goes from Page 103 to 108 with identifying pictures of all the driveshafts. Its a must have for the m38 owner

Use Jam's advice and pickup a copy of Ryan's book.

In the interim,

1 - The military yoke spline is indexed to go on only one way. The civilian is not.

2 - The tube end cover is threaded to the tube on the military and the civvy are crimped.

3 - The front axles for the M38. M38A1 & M170 were all 1.25" tubes. You may have a custom built shaft that used an old rear 1.75" tube.