The yoke Ford lists does not match the one that came out

The 5 October driveshaft entry said a complete rear driveshaft, ML3Z-4602-AE, had been ordered for $307.94 and came in cheaper than repairing the original. That was wrong, and the dealer caught it before anything shipped. The day after the order they ran the VIN and called: -AE is not the shaft for this truck. Ford's parts site lists it for 2021-2022 trucks. The label on the original tube reads PL34-4602-HVA, and the shaft the dealer's VIN check returned is PL3Z-4602-A, which lists at about $800.

At that price the comparison flipped back. The shaft came off the order, and a new slip yoke (ML3Z-4841-B, $199.77) and U-joint kit (ML3Z-4635-AA, $153.86) went on in its place, to rebuild the original shaft. Both are what Ford's VIN lookup returns for this truck, and both boxes carry the right labels, so this is not a picking error. They arrived on 13 October.

Neither matches what came off the truck. Side by side, the yokes are different forgings: the original is stamped 30303, the new one 50829. On the bench, with the new cross pressed into the new yoke, the ears of the shaft's weld yoke contact the slip yoke before the joint reaches full angle. The reliefs cut into the new yoke are narrower than on the original. Nothing has gone back on the truck; this was a test fit.

The U-joint is the same story. The new cross is smaller than the original and its caps are slightly shorter. Neither has been measured with calipers yet, so this entry gives no dimensions - only that the two are not the same part.

On 14 October the tube label, the forging numbers and these photos went to the dealer, asking Ford to confirm which yoke and U-joint are correct for this shaft, or, if neither is serviced separately, to credit them toward the complete PL3Z-4602-A. The dealer has forwarded it to Ford. That is where it sits. The original shaft is off the truck and apart in the meantime.

For anyone doing the same repair on a 2023 F-150: order by VIN, not by a part number off a parts website - that was the mistake here - and read the label on your own driveshaft tube first. If yours also reads PL34, compare the forging number on a catalog yoke with the one coming out before pressing anything in.