Andys06GT

i know its been done, but im still having a problem. driveshaft angle started at 5, pinion was at 2.5 now after adjusting, im getting driveshaft 5, pinion -2. this is still a positive number. shouldnt the driveshaft angle be changing? i started at stock lengths, and its taken a lot of turns to get where im at. just wondering if im over extending the LCAs, or if i just need to keep cranking. the car is just sitting on the floor. im lost, but i dont want to break the damn car driving with a bad angle. thanks for the help.


also. do i add or subtract the driveshaft from the pinion. i was told to add, but that seems like it isnt working. wolfe racecraft, a site i just found, said subtract, which means my original 5 and 2.5 would have been damn close.... thanks again for the help.

Andys06GT

okay, driveshaft angle hasnt moved, at all. still sitting at 5ish. but now the pinion is sitting at 3.5, so thats 1.5 degree difference, and if you're supposed to subtract, that would be right. right?! please?! anyone? i took her for a quick test drive, and it didnt make any of the weird clank noises as it did the first run, and on a 2000rpm launch, it didnt squeal, barely slipped. before it woulda been streaking. so im guessing i either have it right, or did something so horrendously wrong its gonna feel fine tonight and break into a million pieces on the way to work tomorow. if someone could just verify that the way its set up is good, id appreciate it. sorry to bother everyone with such a menial subject.

moosestang

Did you lower the rear? how much? I installed the ford racing springs all around for a 1.5 inch drop along with adj CHE LCA's. You want the pinion anlge between 2-3 degrees from what i've read. Mine sits right around 2-2.5 degrees down or negative and it feels good. I had it at 4 degree and it made a clunk on acceleration in second gear, it was very repeatable. I think your arms maybe extended to much. My drive shaft is 1.5 degrees negative and my pinion yoke is 1 degree negative. I'm only 1/2 inch I believe from the stock LCA length. I almost wonder if I even needed the adj. LCA's.

By the way you don't need as much of a negative (downward) angle with the aftermarket control arms as you do with the stockers because the rearend isn't going to turn up as much under load.

moosestang

http://www.wolferacecraft.com/pinionangle.aspx

If you pinion is nose down like in their example then the angles you gave would give you a pinion angle of -8.5.

Where are you measuring the angle of the pinion yoke?

moosestang

You do have the rear end loaded, right?

moosestang

Andy, get out from under that car, i'm trying to help you!

Forget the subtracting angles mumbo-jumbo. That had me confused as well. If the drive shaft and pinion yoke are both pointing downward towards each other then both the angles are negative and just add them together to get your pinion angle. If the drive shaft angle isn't changing it's probably because you have the LCA's extended to far and it's binding with the pinion yoke, just a hunch though.

Andys06GT

um, yeah, the driveshaft is pointing down. like it should be. but does the angle of the driveshaft change? is it supposed to change when you adjust the lower control arms? thought it would, being that what its connected to is moving back or forward. but it never did. only the angle relationship changed, the actual angle stayed the same. it feels great right now, but again, the driveshaft is at 5, and the pinion is at 3.5. but they both read positive, or over to the rght of zero, whichever way you want to say it. that would be a positive degree of 1, not negative. maybe im just dumb, and cant understand. but if it was 1, then the tip of theangle would be pointing up, and it points down where the two meet. AH! all i know is it sounds okay, looks okay, and feels outstanding, just the numbers dont add up to be what they SAY it should.

QuickShortBus

So from the sounds of it the front of your differential is pointing up, it should be pointing down. The driveshaft angle shouldn't really change.

moosestang

If you extend the LCA's enough the angle of the driveshaft will change, i know cause I had mine pointed down way to far.

Andy, i just want to confirm that you have the weight of the vehicle on the rear axle? I test drove mine with an angle of -6 degrees and it felt like i'd lost a few horses or rather like I was towing something. When I changed it to -4 or so it started making a clunk noise when accelerating in second gear. At -2.5 it feels great. with the ford 1.5 inch drop springs my drive shaft angle is -1.5 and my pinion yoke is -1. I'm using an angle finder that looks like this



You say both your angles are on the same side of zero? To me that would mean one is positive if you're measuring them both on the same side of the car. If you measure both from the drivers side like in my picture and your pinion yoke is pointing downward then the needle should read to the right of zero and if the drive shaft is pointing downward (which I'm almost positive it will always be) the needle will read to the left of zero. Make sure you are measuring the pinion yoke angle from the flat part of the flange and not from the bottom of the pumpkin like in my picture.

Did you ever say if you lowered the rear?

Andys06GT

yeah, thats where its being measured from, and thats the same angle finder. and i put the driveshaft measurement from right at the back, near the joint. i went to the track last night, and had zero problems. it ran a best of 9.034 @79.81mph in the 1/8th. now with the lcas, last night i pulled a best of 8.6700 @81.82mph. these are all on stock pirellis and an automatic. so there's still some work to be done. but the LCA's really helped out. my 60 foot times dropped quite a bit, but i was still having problems hooking up. waiting for the MT drag radials to get here, then ill be good to go.