I'm swapping in a Dana 44 out of a Postal Jeep into my buddy's 56 Hillman Husky. Once installed, the pinion points downward about 10 degrees and I need it to point upwards about 10 degrees to line up with the output shaft on the tranny. I slackened the u bolts and put a floor jack under the front of the diff and raised it up until it was pointing in the right direction. It created slightly less than a 1/2" gap at the front of the spring pad. Should I go to all of the trouble of removing the diff so I can grind off the pads and reinstall new ones at the proper angle, or can I just weld on a half inch spacer to the front of the pad. My only concern is that the springs won't make full contact with the little locating pin.
In reply to fasted58:
http://www.summitracing.com/search/?keyword=leaf%20spring%20shims&dds=1
Hey that's pretty slick. Thanks guys.
Make sure something else isn't wrong. 20* is a LOT of pinion misalignment. Perhaps the springs are installed backwards?
Springs and rear diff are from another vehicle. Weld on pads were done by someone else. Springs look symetrical, so I doubt there's a front and back. They were 5 inches shorter than the stock springs, so I had to make new mounting holes. Degree estimate was an eyeball estimate. I'm going out to pick up one of those degree level gauges to make sure everything ends up correct and in phase. It looks like I will need wedges that are slightly less than 1/2" thick at one end. Need new u bolts as well.
Can't you cut the spring thingies off the axle, get the proper pinion angle (-5') and weld them back in place?
Positive angles, pointed up, are bad.
Messed with it a little more today. I put a shim that was about 3/8" in the front side, and that was enough to raise the pinion angle to level. Trans points down at 4 degrees straight at where the rear pinion would be if it pointed up 4 degrees. (4 degrees down is about where the tranny needs to be in order for t the carb to sit level so that's where it's staying) It's close enough now to get my measurements for the driveshaft. Driveshaft guys says I need to be between 1 and 1.5 degrees out of phase for the u joints to work properly, and I want the pinion to point down in relation to the trans so that when the car is accelerating, the pinion can rotate up to be in phase. Whether the output points up or down in relation to the ground, isn't important. It needs to point down in relation to the trans output shaft. I'm stopping there for now. Once the car is done being built and we can fine tune everything. Trying to get it perfect now that the body is shelled and up on stands is a waste of time. Things will change when it's back on the ground. While the driveshaft is being built, I can work on the trans mount, trans tunnel and the rest of the floor.
4 deg on trans is right the carb will be level. your rear should be 2- deg down as leaf will "wrap up" under power and go a few positive thus bringing them closer to theoretical zero.
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