Driveshaft too short after 3" lowering blocks

I installed 3" lowering blocks along with a 'new to me' rear axle on my 93 B2200 (axle came from a 91), when I installed the driveshaft, it was abnormally difficult. I managed to get it installed by removing one side of the axle where it attaches to the leafs, but the driveshaft is all the way in on the transmission, which I later found out was my ticking noise under load that I could hear under the cab.

Since I am now doing an engine swap, and have the cab and box off of the frame, I can easily see my clearances. I added a 1/4" spacer between the tranny and mount to lift the transmission, and now I have about 1/8" to 1/4" of play, but I feel there should be more, however, when I jump on the back of the truck to compress the suspension, the driveshaft comes out of the tranny further, which tells me the driveshaft is at its furthest point inward when the suspension is unloaded (with the 3" blocks). I was thinking of getting some 2 degree pinion shims, and angle the pinion further upwards, which will bring the rear axle assembly rearward, but before I try it, I was wondering if anybody else had similar issues? The lowering blocks I bought were the universal ones from Summit Racing.

I must have installed 20+ sets of 3" blocks in mazdas over the years and never ran into this, sometimes I used the tapered one and sometimes not, It is definitely not my favorite way to lower but it does work.

Did you loosen the center bearing while doing it?

Center bearing is all the way forward. I noticed that my axle is not at the lowest point of the leafs, which is causing the lowering blocks to lift the axle up and slightly forward, which I assume is why I am having clearance issues now, maybe my leafs were replace at one point?

SO you mean your blocks and axle are not located in the center pins???

They are in the center pins, I will have to get a pic, shows it better.

Here are some pics I just took of my lowering blocks, suspension is unloaded, there is no box, or cab, or engine on the frame, just a frame with wheels.

You can see the blocks are pointing slightly forward here, this is the passenger side wheel:



I put a level on the u bolt, and you can see they are no where near straight up and down, this is the drivers side wheel:

I installed some 2 degree shims between the blocks and springs, and it didn't seem to make any difference. I'm going to see how much it will be to shorten my drive shaft a little I guess. I am going to get different blocks also, don't really like these, and after researching about issues I have, I found my blocks are not very good (hollow aluminum), so I will get some steel ones, or at least solid ones.

Try different blocks before u do the driveshaft.

Last time I had a drive shaft cut, welded, and balanced and a reputable drive train location it ran around $170.... But obviously it would be allot cheaper if you're able to shorten the yoke itself..

But there's something weird going on... you shouldn't have to do any modifications to your drive-shaft for a 3" drop????

^ exactly. Something is wrong here