Let's talk about u-joints and angles

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clutchdust

Millionaire Playboy
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I'm considering something a little radical that will involve moving the differential back 2-3". Needless to say doing this will result in a constant angle in both the inner and outer u-joints for the halfshafts. Part of the project will also involve an upper link that will remove the halfshafts as a load bearing unit. At first I was really concerned about putting angle into the joints because I thought they were supposed to be on center with differential, but how is it any different than the driveshaft? I know many driveshafts, not just in Corvettes but a great deal of RWD vehicles, have some built in angle and run hundreds of thousands of miles without anything more than regular maintenance.
I've heard that about 3* is the most you want, but is there any real reason why I couldn't move the diff without compromising longevity?
 
HOW in the HELL did you know I messing with the same issues.....I have talked with DAmoroso about this topic over the last couple daze, and so I jacked up the car and played with those drive shaft angles...trying to get rid of some ~75+ speed related vibrations in the drive shaft...I still have a stickshift style mounted shifter on the cross support, so there is NO isolation for my 200 4r auto, so I evened out the car pretty good, and found a UP 4* on the measure off the flex plate.....

compared to the rear diffy at zero....jack stands under the t-arms front on the floor jack to get car level as possible....

wound up raising the front of the diffy snout, removing that poly bushing and so they measured equal and opposite at that point....fine,....

drove it 80 mph.....NO DIFFERENCE.....waste of time.......

Universals are new, not even a coat of rust....


still that vibration into the cross support....but only at speed....not engine speed related, CAR speed related....stock drive shaft..and no missing weights....

so???

:cry:
 
Gene,

Like we talked about, I think your best bet is to leave the diffy where the factory put it, and see what you can do about finding out where the trans slip yoke should be. That's the part you changed when you put the trans in, so it makes sense that the issue is there if it is in fact drive line angle related. If you can figure out how high off the cross memeber the bottom of the trans slip yoke should be, you could see where your is and adjust accordingly. Like I said, that's where I went and it made all the difference in my car. I ended up bringing my trans up a bunch!!
 
damoroso said:
Gene,

Like we talked about, I think your best bet is to leave the diffy where the factory put it, and see what you can do about finding out where the trans slip yoke should be. That's the part you changed when you put the trans in, so it makes sense that the issue is there if it is in fact drive line angle related. If you can figure out how high off the cross memeber the bottom of the trans slip yoke should be, you could see where your is and adjust accordingly. Like I said, that's where I went and it made all the difference in my car. I ended up bringing my trans up a bunch!!
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I dunno Dave, I can't get that tranny any higher, in fact I think it's too high now, really, no more room off the glass tunnel......I think that when I redid the cross support, cutting the exhaust loops on the bottom and supported the tops, that maybe the mount height was raised a good bit...gotta look at your car some time, couple blocks of wood and a 2x4 across under it, and measure the differences....meantime a couple calls, and a driveshaft company on Beaver st will do the checks/balances for 35 bux....just more PIA :hissyfit:

next time you up this way, stop by for a few minits, I want to get a measure off your car....
 
I bought mine for about $25. Its about the only thing that is small enough to get on the pinion yoke to measure the angle. Even has a magnetic side.
 
I bought one of those things. I went through three of them before I asked for my money back. TOTAL CRAP! Not one worked horizontally!:hissyfit::hissyfit::hissyfit:

BBShark said:
Not sure what you are doing but I did find something that really makes measuring angles easy. I just bought a digital gauge that is about 2" x 2" x 1" that really makes things easy.

http://www.wixey.com/anglegauge/index.html
Click to expand...
 
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