When i got this truck a few months ago, I thought the axle angle was a little too high. Differential cover pointing down. I had a shaft break a few weeks ago possibly due to too much angle. Got the shaft fixed & back on. last night, my son pulled a chevy out of the mud, and it appears that the angle has worsened and is causing an unneccesary u-joint angle. Is it difficult to straigten it back to eliminate the angle at the joint? see pics below. Thanks for any help.

 

More pics. I think i can see part of the problem. Broken U-bolt bracket up top (is that even the right size bracket?) Lots of gap under the rear of the block and axle.

 

this is also what I am seeing:

 

You have a few repairs to make there.
While you do have an issue with the u-bolts themselves, and that spring plate should be repaired, you also have a "wedge" stuck in there, that is really messing stuff up.
That tappered wedge is designed to raise the pinion up when installed in that direction.
You have one of two options here, you can turn it 180 degrees so that the skinny end faces the rear, and that pinion will go down considerably, or you can remove it entirely.
That appears to be a 4 deg, or maybe aven a 6 deg shim. Be eliminating it, you will drop the pinion by that amount. If you turn it around backwards, you will gain double the advertised angle.
You do have a terrible problem with pinion angle there, and any axle wrap will cause the pinion to climb and make matters worse.
It would also appear that you migh even have a reasonable amount of vibration durring acceleration.

Why is that angle so severe? Was a shackle flip performed? MAybe some other modifications that are not pictured?

In any case, the ulimate, and proper fix would be to re-position the spring pads on the axle. Simply cutting them off with a cut-off whell, and re-welding them on with the correct pinion angle is a snap.
Either will require some new u-bolts, those things have had it, and they are bent because of the terrible angle they are foreced to work at.
Clamping forces will not work properly, and the u-bolt is forced to bend.
This creates side loads on the u-bolt, and failure is in the future.
Little bit of work with the correct parts will do wonders, and will be safe.

 

I was told the U-bolt bracket is turned the wrong way. If they were turned to where the flat part rest on the pring, they would not bent like that. I am going to do all changes you have recommended. Thanks

 

yeh the plates are turned.
i would just take the smaller shim out.
put it back together, and check the angle.
you want it ever so slightly lower. under load(throttle) it will climb.

 

This might help:

Pirate4x4.Com - Extreme Four Wheel Drive

Read it first (a couple of times if you need to) and if you still have questions, I'd be glad to help.

BTW: Get new U Bolts. Your's are probably stretched, and you should never re-use them any way. They should fit the diameter of your axle tube not the spacing (wrong in your case) on the top plates.