Pinion angle ?
 

I have lowered my dodge 2500 single cab short bed about 4" in the rear. I did this with a spring over.....now after looking at the pinion angle I think I fubared it up a bit and didn't think this project through :bang

Anyone have an idea of what the pinion angle should be on a 2X4 2500 ? My rear end is pointing downwards a bit. Is the goal to have the driveshaft as straight of a shot to the transmission as possible?

Is your pinion angle at the rear end more than -2 degrees?

You want the pinion angle at the same angle as the engine/tranny in your average running condition. So with leafs, you'd want a degree or two down of that. IIRC, my engine was around 5 degrees down, so you might want 3 degrees up on the pinion, so when you apply power, it'll rotate up to around 5 degrees. The goal being the u-joints at each end are operating at the same angle.

Keep going down tell she bites.

Get the rear as low as poss, really lighten up the rear spring rate, pay attention to transfer

For the rear you want the pinion angle at the exact same angle as the transfer case output. Anything more than 2deg off will kill your u-joint life and hurt traction (since it'll pulse your rear wheels).

For the front, since it's a double cardan, you want your pinion angle to match the driveshaft angle (so it's parallel with the driveshaft).

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20130313/egugesas.jpg

See my diff aims down a couple degrees. Being 2WD I don't have to worry about a transfer case.

Where should I measure pinion angle from? What is the proper way?

at the yoke, should be the same as the transfercase or trans yoke. envision it with no driveshaft, and the ends should be pretty much parallel. its ok to have it 1-1.5 degrees down as it will pull up under load.

Front joint still needs operating angle to lube and not wear the caps.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

I've got a digital level with a magnet on it. I find a way to get it flat and measure. I'm not super familiar with 2WD stuff, but if it's got a slip spline, you could pull that out a bit and put it on there. That's typically what I do. If it's a yoke/bolted on strap setup, you can just get a piece of angle iron, trill a couple holes, mount it, and then use that as your flat/parallel surface (just make sure the angle iron is actually at 90deg).

That's normally covered laterally by the manufacturer. The t-case output is typically not exactly in line with the differential.
Good point though!

You need to listen to RYAN TUCKER on this one!!!

I would leave it were you have it and give it a try. We have a lot of axle rotation with
these diesel. If you don't have enough it will go positive under launch and actually unload
the tire.

Check it on the yoke. Start at 5* in the dirt, don't be worried or surprised if you end up at 10, my Black C10 liked 13. Run a non greaseable big joint, and just check it for wear every 100 passes or so, more often if the driveline is off anyway. Making power is Always the easy part. All the slow 60' s have always confused me, use the torque and learn how to put it to the ground. My opinion of course

I guess he should clarify what his intended use is. I know when I swapped a 2wd rear end into my 4wd without adjusting the pinion angle, anytime you coasted off the throttle was enough pinion change to cause vibrations. Under load it was fine. I only ended up changing the angle by about 3 degrees to get rid of it (about 2 degrees less than engine/tranny angle). I don't think 10-15 degrees out is gonna be much fun on the street.