9 inch Ford.......Howd Yall Do it?

Ok, I'm ready to cut off this 9 inch housing to put in my model a. I can either center the housing or center the pinion. Give me some ideas of why I wanna do one or the other, the pinion offset is what....something like 2-1/4 isnt it?

 

Center the housing, otherwise it looks off to whoever is following you. The side angle won't hurt you.

 

alot of vans came from the factory with the driveshaft going at an angle off to the side!

 

If the housing is visible I agree W/the above.

If you have a channeled A I'd center the pinion. It would be easier to make the tunnel for the driveshaft too (not that the offset is that big of a deal). That, and depending on how much you cut, you may only need to cut and weld one side of the housing.

 

i would agree with centering the housing. alot of cars came from factory with driveshaft angled to the side because of the pinion offset. it won't hurt anything. and it is nice to have the rear wheels sit evenly distanced from the frame rails.

 

The centered housing has the additional advantage of needing symmetric brackets for a triangulated four bar. This is what is under my roadster, and has worked really well for a long time.

 

By "cut off this 9 inch housing" do you mean narrow it up or do you mean trim the **** off it and hang it?

If you're narrowing it up to go under the A-bone then I would center the pinion. The offset won't be extremely noticable from the rear of the car. But that's the way I go about things, I like things to run as straight as possible.

If you're just hangin' it under there; your only option is to put the wheels where they go. Depending on your rear you could end up with the pinion pretty well centered anyway.

Depending on the length of the drive shaft; the pinion a little off center won't hurt much. If the shaft is real short then you want it real straight to try and save the u joints. If the shaft is real long you can get away with a lot more.

 

Great Question........ If your going to narrow the rearend then ... center the pinion, if not then center the housing. I feel if you are mounting the motor and trans centered in the frame then you should center the pinion also. But I own a narrowing jig, so narrowing housings is no big deal to me. But I'd be unhappy with my driveshaft not going straight in line with the motor and trans. .... LUKESTER

 

I'm going to narrow the rearend, and the motor and transmission is gonna be centered. I was kind of leaning toward centering the pinion so the driveline would be straight, but I was concerned about the housing being offset as far as "looks from the rear", as someone pointed out.

 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm going to narrow the rearend, and the motor and transmission is gonna be centered. I was kind of leaning toward centering the pinion so the driveline would be straight, but I was concerned about the housing being offset as far as "looks from the rear", as someone pointed out.

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Thats what pinstripes are for my friend. Get a rightious stripe job hangin' out there nand draw the eye away from the rearend.

 

Center the housing,looks better in the ch***is,the pinion offset is not enough to hurt anything. I hung a 9" in my model A/Es*** frame and shortened the long side axle tube by 2".Pumpkin is centered,axle tubes are the same length, looks good.

 

Center the housing.
Looks best that way.

As far as the driveshaft angled to the side bit, it's no different than the vertical angle the driveshaft sits at in many cars and trucks.

My 32 is done this way and after 40,000 miles of smooth running it is not a problem.

 

if your pumpkin is off center and your driveshaft is straight.... It looks "professionally built" if your driveshaft is crooked it looks ....." HOME BUILT"...... No offense meant to anyone.... home built is good in most ways..... ....... LUKESTER

 

Got to disagree Lukester. There is hardly a car that came off the ***embly line that didn't have the driveshaft at an angle. If you don't believe me just start putting cars on a hoist and looking for yourself. The centered pumkin just looks right especially under the cars we are building,basically narrow cars. Like C9 has already posted the right/left offset is no more than the verticle offset. A universal joint is designed to work when its offset. If it works in a perfect straight line the needle bearings just sit on one spot on the cross shaft and after a very short time they will Burnell (wear a pit) in the crossshaft and their life is drastically shortened.

Frank

 

When I back halved my car I had to cut and paste the drop of the ladder bar crossmember, cuz me being the idiot that I am, I didn't realize that the factory offset the entire drive train 1/2" to the right!!! Good thing I noticed before I got the rear end!!!

 

Exactly.

"Driveline phasing" reguires a slight offset between the rear axle and transmission.

This angle, typically called "pinion angle", is required to prevent the galling you described.

The face of the pinion companion flange, and the face of the tailshaft housing of the transmission, should always remain in excess of 3 degrees, but no more than 5 degrees, and the "angle planes" should be parallel, but opposite.

Meaning that a "centerd pumpkin" is cool, as long as there is SOME driveshaft angularity