9 inch placement woes

[carlo]

has anyone had a problem centering the 9'' narrowed rear end on their car,I set the pinion center line in line with the c6 trans, both at 11 1/2 off the inside frame rails [23] . now the drivers side axle flange is 1 '' over to that side. if I center the axle based on side to side consideration, the pinion centerline shifts to the passenger side and the driveshaft would be running at an angle or "offset". the axle came with the car[kit] has anyone any experience with this kind of problem before? I can't imagine, but it's possible it was reworked improperly.

[oleyellar]

Carlo,
Do not center the Pinion in car. Put the wheels in the wheel wells where they belong. YES the drive shaft runs at an angle. That is the sole purpose for u-joints. Do a search on the net for driveline angles, 4X4's have the biggest problems, But, by all means center the axle housing in the chassis and move on. The drive line will be fine with the u-joints handling the offset of the transmission output shaft to the pinion.

[Cobra20646]

Carlo,
Oleyeller speakith the truth. I went through the samething saying, "this can't be right!." Mine is offset about 3/4 of an inch to the right. However, my concern was that my drive shaft angle was going to be too steep due to the very short distance is was going to run. Went to Tom Woods web site and found a ton of info on drive shafts and had him make me one up.
The only thing I found that was cause for concern was to ensure that the centerlines of the engine/transmission and that of the rear end pinion shaft were "parrallel and non-intersecting lines." This way the U joints can do their job of "smoothing" out the natural oscillations that take place between the two U joints.

Tom's link is http://www.4xshaft.com

click on his "technicial info" button

- Jim -

[Shell Valley]

Mornin' fellas!
Carlo, Oleyellar and Cobra20646 are exactly right. It seemed strange to me the first time i saw it as well, but the housing was designed to offset the pinoin from the eng. / trans. centerline. I'm not the expert on this (or much else really ) so I can't go into detail on why it is necessary but I can tell you that we did design it that way .

Dana

[427sharpe]

Differential is offset to remove a lot of harshness from the drivetrain when it shifts or engages...also keeps the driveshaft in tension during coasts.

[carlo]

Thank you all for your input,I feel a whole lot better knowing it's designed that way and not some setup mistake on my part,and thanks for the links as well.