ok, so I have 2 questions.

1. I have a driveline angle of 15* right now and am getting a grinding noise at high speed. I plan on getting the driveshaft reversed and a double cardan joint put on next thursday, but what angle does the rear diff need to be once the CV is on? which takes me to 2. how do I tilt the rear diff when I have all the control arm crap mounted to the axle? I could get adjustable upper links but those only adjust to 1" longer then stock? ..... so how many of you have gone rear leafs? i've seen that sschaefer3 and steveO have both done it but how easy is it on a 2nd gen? also how much would it cost to get it done by a shop? cause I don't have anyway of doing most of the work myself..

thanks for your help guys!

 

i'm no driveshaft scientist, but i believe you want the rear diff to point at the t-case output flange for a cv shaft.

i think that the easiest way to go to rear leaves is to ditch the stock axle housing and find a '86-95 rear off a truck and then just weld hangers to the frame. then again, it might not because it sounds like you'd want to redo the perches anyway(for more pinion angle)

 

that's what I thought too, but the local driveline guy said not because then the needles will wear a dead spot because of a lack rotation in the ujoint.



I just don't know

 

If you get adjustable control arms and did adjust the axle to point straight towards the t-case, your coils would not sit striaght on top of the axles. Which, without clips to hold the coils in, could be pretty dangerous.

The next thing, get some 4" All-Pro leafs, and do the conversion. Or talk to Schaefer about his setup with Chevy leafs. I would think he speced out some smaller leafs before going with the 63" mongo leafs. However, if you don't get the axle just right when you weld on the upper perches, you'll experience the driveline problem still. Then the pinion bears wear out, and the t-case wears out, a whole host of fun issues.

 

The leaf spring conversion on the second gen is far superior to the coil spring suspension. The job is not terribly difficult but it is quite time consuming. You'll have a hard time finding a shop to do this kind of work due to liability issues. You may want to talk to the guys at Allpro about doing the work for you.

 

Find a new driveline guy, quick! In fact, just talk to Jesse.

On the angle topic, yes if using a CV at the transmission end you want the pinion to be pointing at (actually 1-2° BELOW for a rear axle) the transfercase output. This is to account for the axle rotating up under load.

On the perches vs axle swap, you'll have to redo them either way to get the proper angles so just keep what you have and make it work.

 

Last I heard AllPro no longer does any work on customer's vehicles.

 

That is exactly what I did on my setup. When I setup my rear suspension, I measured it all out, and set the pinion down 1* to account for pinion climb. I also had Tom Woods retube my drive shaft with 1/8" wall and balance it for me. Thus far, I have had it on the highway to Las Cruces, about 4 hours, and no issues. I'm very pleased with the setup.


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