Im liftin my truck quite a bit and to help my pinion angle im gonna cut my leaf spring mounts off my axle and relocate them is there a disiered angle i should be lookin for or should i get it at the slightest angle possible or what? thanks alot

 

less angle is better...there was a chart somewhere on here about the life of u-joints vs. the angle of operation

i THINK it was in the 1 ton f150 build page...but im not sure, it did have something to do with them though

the pinion angle of the diff is one thing...what about the angle at the t-case? double cardan? another end you need to think about

how about the front shaft? depending on the vehicle you either cant rotate that diff much or not at all...and you stil lhave the t-case wnd to worry about...

 

Ujoints dont need to be perfectly straight to run effectively. Dont turn it up too high or you'll fubar the oiling to the pinion.

 

With a normal driveshaft, you want the pinion yoke and the transfer case yoke sitting at the same angle, if you have a dual cardan shaft, you want the pinion yoke sitting 2 degrees down from the transfer case yoke.

 

^I'm not sure that's correct. Depending on the type of joints you either want the rear pinion pointing slightly below straight at the case because it will walk up a little under load, or you want the tcase and the pinion angle to be the same angle. At least thats what I've always read, could be wrong.. someone posted driveshaft angle info recently, but I'm not sure where it was.

 

Some diffrent opinions on here. What you want is both joints at the same angle which is called in phase. Or if you cant do that have one ends angle at zero. Alpha makes a good point about not rotating the pinion up to much for this because of oiling issues.

 

You guys are crazy if you think a driveshaft needs to be in a straight line with both the pinion yoke and tcase yoke.

 

Ya thats not going to happen. Like i said either have them in phase or have one at zero angle.

 

Oops... I was half awake when I typed that.... At the same angle is not the same as pointed at each other...
What I meant is in phase. You want both yokes sitting at the same angle from level if it's a standard shaft, 2* low on the pinion if it's a cv.
No angle at all won't rotate the bearings in the u-joints and cause them to fail.

 

T case close to parallel with ground, rear diff pointed at it or parallel with the ground depending upon double cardan or u joint style. Something like that.

 

You guys are really throwing this guy off!!!

some of the things you said are right...

Heres were you start:
-how much lift aer you running?
If your d-shaft angle at tcase is going to be over 15 degrees or so you'll want to run a cv.
If you run a cv on the tcase side you will have to rotate the pinion up to be almost straight in line pointed up but down 1.5-2 degrees to allow normal axle wrap to rotate while under driving load,so it actually now is actually in line parralel.


Oil to pinion bearing problem when rotating diff up? Easy get a new diff cover that has fill hole located higher for more oil or you can make one yourself. Getting another 3/4 liter is what you need.
Why:
a normal u joint wont like to run at an angle more than about 12 degrees or so and as a result wears out quicker

with a cv it splits the angle in half that it operates at for each joint. On the diff end the ujoint is the best cuz the angle is 0!
Now if your angle is not extreme you could run just a standard shaft with a joint just on each end and you would NOT want to rotate diff up but instead run it in plane the same as t case angle like this:


Make sense??

 

^thats what I was tryin to say

 

everything but how having a deeper diff cover will help oiling to the pinion.

You are saying an axle has the ability to push oil up hill?

 

Best way to set pinion angle is this little trick
-put on your new perches unwelded and bolted in place(usually pointed a little lower than you need)
put tires back on and put all the weight on axle.This usually chages the angle a bit so its hard to do without weight on axle.
now because the pinion is pointed down its easy to use a floor jack on the pinion to jack it up rotating iton the perches. Now its much easier to rotate up then smash down so thats why its best to start off with it lower than you need. Once angle is good and you like it weld up your spring pads! done.

as for checking angle I use a angle finder on the pinion yoke.

This pic is a little off though. Its better to take your angle off the flat surface off the yolk and not where it is in the pic cuz that surface has a slight taper.
Spin the yoke so its vertical then place angle finder on the flat surface. now take 90 degrees minus what you have on your angle finder to give you your angle your actually rotated up. this angle you have recorded should be 1.5-2 degrees less the angle your shaft is running at.
You can use a string line for your shaft or just install it back in but NOTE the angle of shaft does change just a tiny bit when rotating pinion so double check you got it right. It could start at say 21 degrees then when you rotate up pinion to 19 degrees ,the shaft is now at 20 degrees. It takes a little messin around with to get it perfect but the trick above is the way to go with it just bolted and not welded until complete....pheeewww

 

Well it will to a certain extent if you have an oil slinger in the pinion(that big flat washer) but really its just getting more oil in the diff itself that raises the level is what im saying will help get oil to the pinion bearing.
its not the pinion itself that not getting oil its the top bearing. I made a diff cover with my dana 70 rear by plug welding the stock oil fill hole and used another diff cover i had laying around cut out the fill plug on it with a 1X1 sqaure around it then welded that above where my stock fill hole was to get the extra oil in there. While i was at it i cut out the ring gear portion of the cover and welded that on mine so it was twice as thick for protection from rocks. Silicone is your friend on the inside of the cover around the welded portion to seal it up if your welds are pitted a little with porosity. I scrapped that cover and now have one of these though

3/8 aluminum,pressure bolts (with ball pivoting ends like a clamp)that put pressure on main caps with jam nuts for extreme torque, and a higher fill plug, o and a drain which is now nice.