SOA drive line angle delema (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Feb 3, 2003
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74
Almost complete with the SOA. Read numerous articles, etc but here's where I'm at now.
74 driveline in a 66 chassis, perches at same as stock angle, universals at or near bottomed out, ka-nuckin' or near ka-nuckin', the tranny end being the worst:slap:

1.) Axle shims or lowering the tranny, which will help the most? Note that the stock angles ( faces of the pinion shafts) WERE NOT PARALLEL to begin with, and would have never worked. The front pinion flange would have been several degrees toward the dirt!

2.) If I opt to lower the tranny some (thinking the mounts may be different from 66 to 74?) What do I need to watch for? AND can I just shave down the pucks or can they be replaced? If so with what?

I need help! The light at the end of the tunnel is starting to flicker............AGAIN :'(
 
Did you reverse the springs to lengthen your wheelbase? That will help the driveline angles considerably.
Also you can grind out the area around the ujoint that is touching, effectively creating a high angle ujoint. I dont have any pics of mine but there is alot of meat there that could be ground away to increase clearance of stock 40 driveshafts. When you reverse the springs this is unnecessary on the front and the rear just needs a tiny amount of grinding. The other aspect of reversing the springs is a dramatically improved highway ride due to the longer wheelbase.
I guess I would recomend the grinding around the ujoint for a higher angle first. Then maybe consider the spring reversal. The spring reversal does require lengthening the driveshafts.
You can also do the cut and turn thing but that tends to be expensive and locks you into using a CV joint on your drive shaft. :beer:
 
Also I dont think you want to go changing the transmission possition. That could throw alot of other things off. Keep in mind that you want to keep pinion flanges and the transfercase output flanges parallel. If this relationship is not parallel you will have driveline vibration. :beer:
 
A couple of REAL stupid newbie questions:

1.) Cause I just tore them apart, cleaned and painted them, and threw them back on; Which end of the spring pack has the military wrap. I recalled having them opposite the shackle so that's how they are now.
I ask this as well because BOTH my driveshaft will need about 2" + added to the length! :mad:

2.) I was tempted to grind off the "squared shoulder" of the U joint yoke that is too close/almost hitting. is this the "extra" meat you're referring to?

Thanks for the response!
 
You can grind out the area of the yoke that hits the ujoint at extreme angles I believe that is what you mean by squared shoulder. You should only have to do it to the rear driveshaft. Its been a few months since I did mine and I dont have one to look at right now.(I'm in NM  right now and my rig is in Anchorage)
As far as the springs go I just reversed them without taking them apart so the military wrap was reversed too. Anyway I'm a little confused too about the springs and the military wrap so someone else could chime in and educate us.
When you reverse the springs you will be able to tell pretty quick cause you will be gaining about 6-8 inches of wheelbase
 
Took some time out yesterday and measured my springs from the center pin to the shackle pin. They appear to be in the stock position.
 Actually the front driveshaft is the worst of the two! The pinion flange is about "plumb" and the transfer flange is SEVERAL degrees pitched (?)away(?). Thus if I was actually parallel in this case, it would be terrible! Note that both sets of perches are at STOCK ANGLES.
 The rear isn't a big deal. A local spring shop actually stocks shims from 1-4*, and they are only 20 minutes away.
 Thinking that I'd possibly throw a 4* in the rear. I'm not sure about the front...........depends on who you talk to(?) about caster angle.
 The thing that disappoints me is that I've heard of several guys doing this over the weekend with only changing perches & brakelines. I'm needing to grind, shim, and extend my driveshafts............(whining noise being emitted) but that's all part of it I guess!
 
I got mine done in a weekend too. I dont know much about the spring shims you are talking about I did'nt use any. You can be a couple of degrees off. Again I think by reversing the springs you can get around some of the driveline angle and alignement issues. For brake lines with the spring reversal take off the front line and add it to the back then track down a used rear line from a donor vehicle and use it up front. :beer:
 
if you can get your hands on some tacoma driveshafts,the u-jts have way more movement,almost twice as much as a stock land cruiser.i pulled my stock shafts apart and used the tacoma pieces on my transfer case outputs,the shafts will slide right together.this allowed me to have a greater angle at the tc than my stock u jt could handle.its a slightly smaller u jt,but still pretty burly.i got 2 shafts at a wrecker for $100.00.they wont bolt up but some work at a machine shop fixes that up.
 
axlechassis, do u mean if i reverse the front springs the angles would be good enough that i dont have to do the cut and turn thing?
 
yes this is what many of us in ak have done with favorable results. We also reverse the rear springs. The rear spring reversal works good if you haven't already cut out the rear wheel opening. You just need to cut out an S shaped portion behind the wheel, retaining some of the body symetry.
 

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