hodgeee

Well, with a lowered or raised truck, you ain't gonna get a perfect alignment from the tranny to the diff, only in a hand built race car would you actually see the axle and driveshaft be perfectly straight. Within it's movement, it aint gonna run into any problems, what is important is that the transmission yoke and pinion yoke are at as close to a perfect horizontal angle to eachother!

Ryan23silverado

iTrader: (1)

wow okay... horizontal is not optimal, and you can get the angle perfect with pinion angle block shims. But if you don't care I would not sweat it...it will run fine.

FarmTruc

iTrader: (5)

hey ryan23, did you notice any grinding and misalignment when you did your drop, looks like you went low, i was also thinking about the bags when i go 6" in the back,

looks good btw,

allen

Ryan23silverado

iTrader: (1)

It is an extended cab truck, so I raised the carier bearing in the center of the drive shaft (the ext. cabs use a two piece d/s) this put the angle pretty much level from the tranny to the rear end. At that point I did not notice any grinding noises.
From that level point, I got two degree shims and put them under the rear end to point the pinion downward two degrees. So when I floor it now the angles should be good to go
I lowered it 4-6 DJM control arms/Belltech flip in back (much better than DJM flip in back as Belltech boxes the frame)
Thanks for the compliment btw and I have to say thanks for the e-fan wiring schematic on your ls1truck.com site, it works well

METAL MAN

Hey there Hodgeee, Ryan23silverado is correct on the pinion angle. What you’re looking for is 2degrees negative (or for some two degrees closer to the ground). Under acceleration your springs and bushings all bend upward from the torque. Now with the two degrees of negative pinion angle when under hard power you should never exceed a horizontal plain. If you do you’re putting your ujoint in a bind and IT WILL BREAK! Just my .02
Keep up the good work Ryan!

hodgeee

So should I just take this to a driveline shop, and have them measure it, and readjust it. I talked to Hotchkis, and they say with their springs installed on a regular cab model, it is allready shimmed to exactly where it needs to be. Is this incorrect? I have never had problems before, and never heard of anyone else with the hotchkis kit complain or say that they needed to do anything else. I emailed the pics to Jim at Danny's and he said from the pics he could tell that it was critical speed that broke it. Also if you look at the pics, all the pinion holes are unaffected by the driveshaft breaking. None of the caps or u-joints are broken, its just the pinion yoke caps were stretched off to the side where it fell out. I was also told that the biggest reason could have been that the Driveline shop may have incorrectly reinstalled the driveshaft since the gear swap!

If this was what was wrong with my truck, then wouldn't one of the u-joints have broke? I am going to remeasure the angles once I get it onto a flat surface again, and off of my driveway. Maybe with it being in a forward leaning angle, that is causing the angles to be off. I don't know. Once I get the driveshaft installed, I am taking it back to my friend Rusty who ownes Adam's Driveshaft, and have them check it. Thanks for letting me know something else to check to just make sure, this might save me from burning more money, or damaging my truck again!

hodgeee

Oh, one last question. I moved my truck, and started the motor just to help me turn the stearing wheel to get it into the street to take my measurements for the driveline shop, but I noticed that my ABS light was on, and the service panel said, check brake system. Now the brakes felt normal, and there are no leaks, then I used my diagnostic off of the Predator, and it could not find any DTC's I looked at all the brakes around the truck, and cannot find anything wrong. I even looked at the ABS system under the truck, and it is in a location where the driveshaft could not have hurt it at all. Could there be something that is throwing off the system since there is no driveshaft? I don't remember the light being on at all after the driveshaft blew.

creederado

Just to add to Denny's product, I have had this shaft since 2000 and the reason I got it was to avoid any problems and to save on weight from my stock 99 Steel shaft. My pinion angles are close to stock and no adjustment was needed from the simple shim included on the hotchkis leafs. All this talk of alignment w/the rearend has me questioning what I always heard-output angle horizontally pararell with the input angle on the rearend.- Just my .2

I have the same suspension and tires as Hodgee and have had no problems especially with the new 4.10 gear set. 3rd-5500-5600 = 115 or so.

As far as the abs I would say wait till the shaft is on and take it for a test drive. My abs computer went out shortly after buying the truck in 99 and was covered under warranty.- No warning just went. They had problems w/ them at first, It may be your having back luck or it got bumped by the shaft and loosened something up.

keep us posted.

FarmTruc

iTrader: (5)

thanks ryan for the input, btw, i didn't think anybody used that schematic, lol, i was hoping it helped someone out there.

hodgeee, i wouldn't worry about it if you are pretty close on your angles, the reason ppl say you want the angle a little more when you mash the gas is the rearend moves, well that's mostly on hard acceralation (it does more with normal driving too) were looking for a nice ride and we don't race our trucks everyday, so if you don't here anything or feel vibes and the angle between the joints and the tailshaft / and between the rear yoke and the joints is 1.5 degs or so , you're fine.

also, i'm sure hotchkis did thier homework.


good luck,

allen

skid

hodgeee, you are probably getting the abs light because the abs sensors are dectecting movement and your trans is still in park. The computer logic would think that you are not moving because you are in park so therefore the abs system must be screwed up.

The code should go away once the driveshaft is replaced.

Skid