pinion angle

What Andy said makes perfect sense to me, I finally figured out the whole equal opposite angle thing from reading posts by him and Russ-D lol. The 4link I just did on my friend's hardbody, was set at ride height (a little less than the bags middle extension) and up it was right about 1 degree, and down it changed like .75 degree. I figured that was good, but 10 degrees seems like A LOT!

Originally posted by bdydrp97s10



go to a hardware store and ask for an angle finder. when you get it stick it on the bottom of your drive shaft and thats your pinion angle



Correct me if I'm wrong but isnt that the "working" angle? (usually a larger angle with bigger wheels.. causing you to have to shim the carrier bearing/tranny) Just what I've learned so far from asking a million pinion questions haha.

To set it, measure the output angle of your tranny. I reference it from level, so 1 degree down for example. Then match your rearend to that but opposite, 1 degree up for this particular case. After this is set, put your driveshaft back in and measure the driveshaft angle. You are looking for a difference in the angle of the tranny to driveshaft to be no more than 3 degrees but not 0. The reason for this is the u-joints have to rotate or they won't keep the needle bearings lubed and you don't want it alot more than 3 because it will cause excessive wear and short life. If it is out of this range, you should consider raising the rear of the tranny with a spacer and doing the measurements again. You can do all of this on a driveway, it doesn't have to be level because all of the measurements you take will be equally offset from level. Remember that the reason for vibrations is inbalance and since u-joints travel in elliptical paths you have to have an opposite inbalance to counteract the inevitable path of a u-joint working in an angle.

I seen the picture of where to put the angle finder on the rearend, but where do you put it on the driveshaft and transmission to find their angles?

Just lay it flat against the bottom of the driveshaft. For the tranny and rearend just use a square and angle finder across the yokes. Put the tranny in neutral and rotate the output so its vertical, for the rear jack it off the tires and rotate it vertical.

alright I gotcha on that. On the driveshaft do you just put it somewhere in the middle by the tranny or rearend or does it matter?

Doesn't matter. If it did, your vibration is from a bent driveshaft.

man what a wealth of info andy so if you are dealing with 2 piece would you need ro reference the rear end pinion angle to the angle that the carrier bearing is angled at?

yup you would, and ud reference the carrier to the tranny. lol

alright awsome thanx for the help guys