Author Topic: Pinion Angle  (Read 703 times)

nivvy

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Pinion Angle
« on: March 29, 2007 - 07:12:27 PM »
I am going to get a pinion angle finder from competition engineering...so my dumb question is how do you use it to find your pinion angle ???  :burnout: dont you want 5* nose down ??? do you just set the guage on the driveshaft ???

« Last Edit: March 29, 2007 - 07:20:30 PM by StrOkEr »




Offline djdmotorsports

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Re: Pinion Angle
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2007 - 08:57:48 PM »
If your talking about your driveshaft working angles, then i have good and bad news. Good news, i can explain how to do it, Bad news, thats not the right tool.

To find working angles....

Put the car up on jackstands and in neutral, the key is the rear end needs to be jacked up until it is at ride height. Best way ive found to do this is to measure from a point on the rear end to the frame while the car is sitting on the ground, put it on stands, then with a jack under the rear end jack it up to what you measured. Then rotate the driveshaft until the pinion yoke is at 90 degrees, attach the tool pictured below to the u-joint and measure the angle. Then rotate the driveshaft until the driveshaft yoke is at 90 degrees and take that measurement. With the tool pictured below it is key to remove the u-joints retaining end clips if it is equiped with them so the tool will sit level and get an accurate reading.

The same measurements should be taken for the front driveshaft yoke and the rear trans yoke.

Next is the math....

If you subtract the rear driveshaft yoke angle from the rear pinion angle that will give you your rear u-joint working angle. Working angles should not exceed 4 degrees, same with the front for the front working angle. The front u joint and rear u joint working angle should be within .5 to 1 degrees of each other (GM Specs so they might be a little different).

Here are some pics from a GM training site as well as a picture of the tool
1966 Plymouth Valiant V200
1973 Plymouth Barraucda

nivvy

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Re: Pinion Angle
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2007 - 09:03:50 PM »
I didnt buy that yet but it said in the ad for finding pinion angle ??? maybe ill get a pro to do it...
« Last Edit: March 29, 2007 - 09:07:20 PM by StrOkEr »

Offline djdmotorsports

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Re: Pinion Angle
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2007 - 09:46:30 PM »
Im sure you could make that gauge work, its just 1. will it be a pain in the butt to get it to seat flat with the pinion and the accuracy of it. The ones we use at work have built in levels to make sure everything is kosher and accurate. i know when we do them at work we have to measure everything about 3434543523 times so that there isnt an issue that would cause the u joints to wear.

If you take it slow and measure everything the GM perscribed 234239023942 times, its nothing too major.
1966 Plymouth Valiant V200
1973 Plymouth Barraucda