I got some wierd driveshaft angles, whats up?

Rat Rods Rule

Help Support Rat Rods Rule:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

maddog

Here he comes to save the day!
Joined
May 13, 2007
Messages
864
Location
SFV Southern California
My drive shaft is very short. From center of U joint to center of U joint is 14" or 15". Thats it.

It seems that my trans points slightly down, the pinion can point anywhere I want it to because I havnt made the brackets to hang it yet.

The thing is, it seems that the pinion will be slightly higher than the trans output shaft.

All the diagrams that I have looked at, showing proper pinion and drive shaft angles, show the trans output shaft higher than the pinion shaft.

What do you think about this?
I can keep the angles to just a few degrees, but will it work?
The trans output shaft is in the center of the vehicle but the pinion is off to the right side. Can I leave this offset?

Thanks
 
My drive shaft is very short.

I wouldn't worry about it..... It is not the size, it is how you use it.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Gravity is not a factor in drive shaft angle. The drive shaft does not know if it is running down hill or up hill. Or a slight angle off to one side. Just make sure you have enough slip to let the suspension cycle with no danger of the shaft slipping apart. Also make sure the shaft does not bottom out before the suspension does.
 
I went back and looked at the pictures. The way your arms come in, there wont be a lot of slip. And the length looks crowded, but manageable.
 
14 inches, I wish I had that much. The driveshaft in my T is shorter than that, and the one in my Son's T is about 10 inches long. Also, don't worry about the tailshaft being lower, most low cars end up that way.

Don

tdriveshaftinstalled-1-2.jpg


donstviewofrunninggearinstalled.jpg


We are suffering from driveshaft envy. :eek::D:D

Don
 
Look at those little things!:D
I feel much better now, thanks Don.
You have bones outside the frame too!
I'm going to have to go back and study your build threads........again.:cool:

Man, your stuff looks great, not talking about your dinky driveshafts either.:D
 
14 inches, I wish I had that much. The driveshaft in my T is shorter than that, and the one in my Son's T is about 10 inches long. Also, don't worry about the tailshaft being lower, most low cars end up that way.

Don

tdriveshaftinstalled-1-2.jpg


donstviewofrunninggearinstalled.jpg


We are suffering from driveshaft envy. :eek::D:D

Don

By the way Jim,You are moving real quick now on the Fiat and its looking good.

Not to hijack but on the Blue T it looks like you guys centered the pinion instead of the housing.Is this correct?Only reason I ask is I now have 2 Nine inch rears.One would need to be cut down that is 62" and the housing is centered on the axle.Being the axles are the same lenth,But I just recentley got another one that is 54" that is a smooth faced rear.This one has the long and short style axles just like the Blue T has. And for it to fit just right I would also need to center the pinion and not the housing.It would only be like 3/4" to an 1"Offset Maybe.All input would be appritiated.
 
No hijack taken, all good stuff, love talking about it.

I'm no expert but everything I read says a little off center is no problem and can even help. You dont want the ujoints running straight, they need a little angle to keep the needles moving.

The rear I have is not centered but the axles are the same length. The axles meet in the center of the carrier but that leaves the pinion off center. Have you taken yours apart yet? From my understanding, the ones that are centered are from passenger cars and the driveshaft running down the center left more room in the car for people. The trucks were off center because they had lots of room under the truck.

I think this is correct but feel free to correct me if its not.
 
No hijack taken, all good stuff, love talking about it.

I'm no expert but everything I read says a little off center is no problem and can even help. You dont want the ujoints running straight, they need a little angle to keep the needles moving.

The rear I have is not centered but the axles are the same length. The axles meet in the center of the carrier but that leaves the pinion off center. Have you taken yours apart yet? From my understanding, the ones that are centered are from passenger cars and the driveshaft running down the center left more room in the car for people. The trucks were off center because they had lots of room under the truck.

I think this is correct but feel free to correct me if its not.

Jim,My question was that if you look at the one that Don has you will see that the actual housing is not centered in the frame."At least it looks that way in the pick".Lots of people center the housing and then run the shaft to the side.Look at the pic so you can see what I am talkin about.If you look at the gas cap and follow it down to the fuel pump.The housing is just slightly offset to the driver side of the frame.That axle has an offset pinion to the right.Normally they are about 4".If you look closely the pinion is straight shot from the tail shaft.That leads me to beleive that the pinion is centered in the frame and not the housing itself.I always thought that this was frowned upon.As I have been told I dont know how many times that the center of the housing should be in the center of the frame.So when people look under your car it dont look Goofy.

But if Don did it.Its not Goofy to me.I just dont want to have the axles cut up if this is acceptable.
 
IMO the housing being centered is only important if you have a T bucket of somethng where the rear end is a major part of the visual presentation.

I see what you see in the photo.

Mechanicly I see no problem with any of it.

And as for Don being goofy, look at those crazy colors!! You would have thought he would do something normal like, black or rust or WD-40, but no. He had to be different.:D
 
I know that thete is noithing mechanicly wrong with doing it that way.I just had never seen it done that way.Thae shaft will follow left to right without any problem.Even if the pinion was set up tio the right.
 
Yeah, some people feel your housing has to be centered under the car to look good, but we went with it slightly offset, in the original position. You hardly notice it, and we decided we wanted the driveshaft to run straight as he has very little room under there with the battery box sharing space with the driveshaft.

Here is an almost dead on rear shot. As you can see, it is over to the left a little, but the license plate hides that fact somewhat.

Don

donstwiringstarted005.jpg
 
:rolleyes:
All the diagrams that I have looked at, showing proper pinion and drive shaft angles, show the trans output shaft higher than the pinion shaft.

What do you think about this?
I can keep the angles to just a few degrees, but will it work?
The trans output shaft is in the center of the vehicle but the pinion is off to the right side. Can I leave this offset?

Thanks

No problem, just do yourself a favour, and make sure the flanges are parallel.
It's not a problem with the height or offset, but there is a small risk for vibrations if the flanges are not parallel.

NielsK
 
2 steps forward, 1 step backwards. I finally got to doing accurate measurements on the working angles of the driveshaft.

Due to too much working angle on the ujoints I have decided to raise the motor slightly and tilt it a degree or 2 forward. When I can get the angles to 7 degrees, I will stop there. The recomondation is to not exceed 5, but hey, who's counting. I then got to looking at the angle from the top as the pinion is offset in the vehicle and that angle is too great too.:eek: To solve this I am shifting the rearend 2 inches over and that will center the pinion in the vehicle. Then I will need to shorten one tube and one axle 4". I think the tires will still fit outside the body, we'll see.

I went to the local driveshaft shop here in town, I had never been there before but knew of the place. I am discussing my problem with the owner and 15 min. into our talk he says "I know you" :eek: Sure enough, we had met years eariler and he had come to my shop. At that point I got invited into the back of the shop for the full on tour. I guess I have a friend in the driveshaft buisness.:D That could be helpfull.
 
The friend in the driveshaft business is a plus. With a rear that has an offset pinion, I always center the pinion and not the housing. I just like the way things line up that way.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top