Some of you guys have been talking about lowering blocks for the rear, and thought this would be a good time to bring this question up. I thought a seperate thread would be better as I do enough hijacking (or, in this case lojacking) as it is. Lowering blocks are available with angled surfaces rather than parallel if you need to change your pinion angle a small amount. The ones I've been able to find so far are 2 degrees. I guess this brings up the topic of pinion angles and how important they are. I'm not sure. Frankly, the answers I get locally seem to correlate to the build quality of the responders. My friends tell me, mine will be fine, don't worry about it...I've never checked them and have never had a problem. Then I either read Hamb threads or talk to a good friend who traditionally does everything "right" or it isn't done at all. He says they're important...gotta be checked. I honestly think mine will be ok, but right now my ride height is so far off I'm not sure I could check it accuratly. I guess I could get it out on my concrete driveway, take the front wheels off and lower the front to the rake I will eventually end up with. I'm thinking about this now because my rear is apparently also going to be too high as well with the new springs (and shocks), so if I'm going to add lowering blocks I'd like to do it once and use the ones where I can change the pinion angle a bit if I need to. So...I guess the question/discussion is, what have your experiences been with pinion angles in our cars that have had an engine swap?? Have they been off far enough to worry about? EDIT: To clarify what I said earlier about not being sure how impotant the angle is, what I should have said was I'm not sure at what point it becomes an issue that should be corrected.
Glad you brought this up Tex, my 8.8 rear end is up at moser to be narrowed with new axles, I want to*****on up all the drivetrain but since the body is off the frame, less weight, I plan to get the body on and mock up the whole rear suspension before I can weld the perches in or get a driveshaft measurement, setting a rear end is new to me and I don't want any humming or premature wear from a bad pinion angle
I set my reared 1 degree less the what was measured at the transmission output shaft. My transmission was pointing down 6 degrees so I set my perches at 5 degrees up. I****ume this is the right way it is what I was told to do. The cars weight was fully on the suspension .
Sounds like what I was reading for recommendations. Not having a concrete floor to work on, only my driveway when the weather permits, I don't have a clue where mine is...I suspect it will get better when my ride height in the front is corrected. At this point I don't even know where the differential is pointing, but I never changed the perches from stock. Right now my engine is 6* down, I think...that was on a dirt floor, so that will lessen when I drop the front 3-4 inches down out of the clouds. Edit:....I mispoke. The engine was orinally set in at 6* down, then I raised the******* mount and it ended up at 5* but that was before I installed all the sheetmetal. Not sure I ever checked it after all the front end was finally****embled. The front end still need to be lowered about 3" or so, so I should end up in the 2* down range when everything is said and done.
I've been reading about this for my Rambler project and everything I've found states after your stance is set, set the engine and transmission where your carb plate is level (or pretty close), measure the angle at the transmission out put shaft, and set the rear end exact opposite. Most stuff I've read says ideal setting is in between 3 and 5 degrees.
This is the procedure I've always followed. Now if car was fuel injected would just set it off******* output and set it 3 to 6 degrees and set rear opposite. Fuel injected engines don't really care if they are run upside down till they start having oil issues.
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