pinion angles

after reading a lot of articles and forums on line i have yet to see any situation where people are in total agreement on pinion angles. I was under the impression that the rearend should point down towards the ground and the output shaft of the trans should point up towards the sky the same number of degrees as the rearend points down. lets say you were building a truck from scratch and had total freedom to place the trans and rearend at any angles, what is the correct relationship? and if the relationship between the two is the same, is there a need to worry about the driveshaft angle, or would that not be an issue since both the trans and rearend are at the propper angles? I have seen numerous drawings that seem to contradict each other and now im starting to wonder what is the optimum situation. can you explain this?

trans usually points down, pinion usually points up as far as any truck I've ever dealt with.

will it really make a difference if the trans is down and the pinion up vs the trans up and pinion down? in both situations the trans shaft and pinion are parallel to each other.

I was wondering the same thing... I have a carrier bearing as well which I dropped 1" just like I did the engine and trans... I don't know if I should come off the bearing or the trans

half way thru the vid it shoes a pinion im guessing its wrong

CADDY HOPPIN



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if you set the rear pinion exactly opposite the trans pinion, the u joints will be at zero and they will wear out really quickly.

You want to point the pinion DOWN a few degrees from the trans angle. If the trans angle is zero, the rear angle should be -4 or -5 for leaf springs, -2 or -3 for a link setup, because the twisting movement of the axle on leaf springs will let the angle point up a few degrees under acceleration. Link bars are rigid mounted and, unless the bushings are trash, do not have this problem.

If your trans angle points down a few degrees (like on s10's) you should point the rear angle opposite and a few degrees down. so for a -5 trans angle, you would use a 0 rear angle for springs or +3 for links.

The pinion on that toyota is an abortion thanks to that 50/50 link setup, I had a toyota and the trans angle is 0, so the pinion should point down a few degrees. It looks to point up about 10 degrees!

Damn that pinion on the 'yota in the video looks horrible I would be scared to drive that thing.

so... lol my trans points down 3 degrees, my carrier bearing is at 0 and my rear needs to be?

WHAT WOULD BE THE BEST WAY TO FIX THAT PINION ANGLE ON THE TRUCK IN THE VID

The only way to fix that angle is to have the top bars go forward instead of backwards.