driveline angle

['08burn'em'off]

Im trying to help a friend of mine get the angle correct on his '97 250. My question is; is there a measuring tool that you guys use to get the angle correct or is it ok to just eyeball it? When he bought it the guy said he didnt know why it kept throwing the driveshaft so i took a look at it and was surprised to see the front of the rearend pointing at almost a 45* angle towards the bed. Seller said he drove it like that since he got it. Do you think the gears are ok or should i tell him to start looking for new gears?

 

[Aaron S]

Unless the truck has 20 inches of lift, that angle sounds extreme.

Are there any signs that the welded spring pads have broken loose allowing the pinion to rotate up or possibly the plug welds that attach the center section to the axle tubes have broken allowing the same thing?

Aaron

 

[Zmann]

PDF http://www2.dana.com/pdf/J3311-1-DSSP.pdf

that angle finder in the pdf is available at any hardware store
and since your finding the differences you don't need to be on level ground


... but something is definitely very wrong by your description I agree something might have spun but It would have to be because someone screwed something up ,, the locating pins don't usually fail

 

['08burn'em'off]

I appreciate the help guys. Im gonna go over there tomorrow and we're going to dig into it a little more. I'll try to post up some before and after pics.

John

 

[Tom S]

Craftsman sells a nice digital level that is magnetic and makes it easy to measure the driveshaft with.

 

[Tree Trimmer]

point the rear end straight at the drive shaft, then down a tad.

sounds like your pumpkin twisted up around the tubes.

strap your axel to your frame on both sides, by the leaf springs, with some stout straps, or chains.

put a bottle jack on top of the pumpkin, right over the yoke, but not pushing on it just the housing, and jack away.

this is how we rotated our pumpkin back down.

you would them weld the tubes to the housing to prevent that from happening again.

keep in mind, if your familiar with axle wrap, using the jack will wrap it the other way. you have to decide how far is to far, before you either put on traction bars to hold the tubes or some other way to hold them. sometimes the housing will rotate back relatively easily without the need for trac bars, and sometimes you have to give it some serious.......persuasion.

or get another axle.