someone help me with my bagged mazda.

ok heres my problem.

its threw out 3 driveshafts. stripped out one and busted the carier bearing boot on another one and bent htre shaft that goes in the tranny.

well i got me a 3rd one made and it busted the carier bearing boot and fell out hte tranny. it gets in a bind and it wont even raise the ass end up sometimes. heres some pictures and let me know what you all think. im gonna call the guy who bagged the truck monday and let him come look at it.

heres some pictures

*notice the driveshaft is at a angle.*

*at ride height*

*laied out*




notice how the poion angle changes so much?? i need some help on whats wrong. i cant put a driveshaft in it everyday lol.

Thanks everyone

lol dang man that sux, I think i know whats going on because yours looks similar to mine. I would guess your pinion angle was set at ride height which is good, then as your truck airs out what happens is since the lower bars reach their full extention or level with the ground before the upper bars. At the end of rotation the lower bars are level, while the upper bars are still rotating up to level which is pushing the axle back and pulling your drive shaft out. I hope this is making sense its hard to explain. But a way he could fix it is set the distance between the lower and upper link mounts on the frame to the same amount of distance between the link mounts on the axle. Just a guess and example the distance from the top link tab on the axle to the bottom of bottom link tab may be 9". thats with me figuring on 3" for height of each link tab and 3" for the axle tube. Again hope this makes sense man, maybe you could adapt a ranger 2 piece drive shaft to yours, it has fex point where it can extend and contract a little.

you might want to have him change the lower bars so they don't twist when your bags are inflated, its going to ruin your bushings

the upper bars are too long, and where they mount to that crossmember is too high

look at your axle when the truck is layed out, if the wheels are dead center in the wheel wells, then dont mess with your lower bars...your uppers are what's binding and whats fucking up your pinion

and those mounts for the upper bars are just way way too high


another thing i noticed is that your bags are off to the side of the frame, that setup will twist the bar and eventually shit your bushings....i'd get him to center the bag as well...or weld a bar from lower bar to lower bar, but if u do that, it'll defeat the purpose of a 4link, because you'll get rid of the articulation


for bagged trucks, its best to set up the 4 or 3link type suspensions with the upper and lower bars parallel and the same length, so the pinion does not change.....you will see racecars and others have different variations but that is because they take in consideration the power of the car and the fact that the suspension will not move up and down much, so it is pretty much set at that spot [ride height]

you dont have to set it perfectly parallel, just close..a typical U-joint will handle up to 3 degree pinion change, more than that and it'll bind and vibrate

Here you go man I made some models to help explain, Like mark said, where your upper link mounts are mounted on the frame is to high because the distance between upper and lower link mount needs to be the same on the axle as it is to the frame. It's perfectly ok if the upper bar is shorter then the lower bar because this helps keep the pinion to the same angle as the drive shaft, it they were parallel it would just stay at the level the pinion was set even if the drive shaft changes angles. Mark is right your upper link bushings do bind because they are forced forward but that isn't what's causing your bad pinion angle. What's causing it is the difference in the distance between link tabs, The distance is greater on the frame then on the axle but anyway here is some pics

the last 2 pics are if you set it up like we are saying

Im not saying this is the only way to fix it im just saying this is a way that could work thats what i love about air suspension theres many right ways.

those are some cool diagrams

man thanks alot, the people over at nissanmins said the samethings yal are saying. it makes alot of sense if you just look at it, im going to lower the 2 top links and make them shorter tomororw. ikm hoping it will fix everything.

good luck dude..