Need Help! Questions on rotating rear axle

Jones4WD

New Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Location
Wake Forest, NC
I am in the middle of rotating my rear axle on my 96 Jimmy to put the pinion in line with the new cv driveshaft. My problem is the truck was originally a SUA and the trailmaster lift lifted the rear by doing a SOA. To do this they used spring perches that fit on top of the axle and have little feet that sit in the cups of the original perches that are on the bottom of the axle. To start off I marked where the SOA perches were currently located and then cut off the old SUA perches. I have the perches on the axle and loosely u bolted together so that I can set the pinion angle. The problem is I have the perches lined up with the marks I made earlier and the axle seems to be off to one side a little. I measured from the pinion to edge of leaf springs on each side and got about a 3/4" difference. Should I set the perches based on the measurements or on the marks of where they were before? I mean the marks should be right but its hard to measure (no good reference points). What would happen if the axle ended up being slightly off to one side? Would being slightly offset affect the driving. This is my DD so I need to to be very streetable. Thanks for any help, I can't afford to screw up my DD.
 
I always measure over from the brake backing plate flanges to center an axle up. Just make sure you have the same measurement from the spring center pin to the flange on each side and it should be all squared up. The pinions are not always centered, hope this helps.
 
Ditto. Measure the length between the springs at the spring hangers. Keep the same width at the axle and split the difference from the backing plates to the spring on each side.
 
Note when you do this Make sure your Pinion Angle is parellel with your output shaft of the transfer case. you can get a cheap level with a degree gauge from Home depot it has a magnet so it will help you check you alignment. Just set It on your Valve cover and first check you angle of the engine and trans and then set you axle to match within 3 degrees
See picture
1978cc012.JPG
 
Jones4WD said:
I guess I will try and move it over to where the measurements are equal. What would happen if it were off a little? This is my DD so I need to to be very streetable. Thanks for any help, I can't afford to screw up my DD.
Click to expand...

I think you have your answer right there. DD, get it right the first time while you're doing it :)
 
I thought that the pinion was suppose to be in line with the driveshaft. Meaning pointing towards the driveshaft within 3 degrees of same angle of the shaft. The hole reason for doing all this is because I just switched to a cv style driveshaft and according to everything I have read including Tom Woods website the pinion and driveshaft angles should be within 3 degrees of each other.
 
You are right, the pinion coming out of the rear diff should point directly to the tcase output shaft when using a CV style driveshaft. The parallel comment refers to using a non CV type driveshaft. Sounds like you've done your homework, it'll probably turn out great :)
 
Back
Top