The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline 14 bolt rear end pinion offset for my 1956 chevy 3600?

I recently bought a 14 bolt rear end to replace my OEM Eaton HO52 so I'd have more highway friendly gears. the WMS to WMS is about 62.5" but the pinion has an offset of nearly 2" towards to passenger side. My engine and tranny are not mounted yet fortunately. Do I need to offset my engine and tranny the same amount (about 2" towards passenger side) or do I need to find another rear end with more of a centered pinion? Obviously I am new to this.

Neither,
You can use the axle as is with a centered engine and transmission. The slight offset will not be an issue at all so long as pinion and transmission shafts are still parallel, which they will be unless you goof up installing springs or engine.

We have a tech tip with resources on calculating, installing, and evaluating driveline angles and such.
https://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/driveline/setup/index.html

If you get into the PDF's you can read about driveline setups just like you're about to do and given your measurements can satisfy yourself it'll be OK.

Those manuals and the basic rules in the tech tip will also help you set your pinion angle, which you'll need to do considering you're swapping axles and possibly engine.

Grigg

Millions of Tri-5 Chevy cars ran an offset pinion with no problems. I don't see an issue as long as the pinion shaft vertical angle is correct.
Jerry

very encouraging! What do you mean by "so long as pinion and transmission shafts are still parallel" In a vertical sense? I have a long bed so I'll; be using a two piece drive shaft with a carrier bearing. thanks

thanks Jerry. I',m running a two part drive shaft since my truck is a long bed. Any other pointers?

Snowman,
Look in the driveline setup tech tip I linked above, it clarifies Jerry's explanation and answers your questions.

Ok. Thanks. Since my engine and tranny are not installed yet, do you think I ought to install them, say 1" off center towards the passenger side to reduce the overall top down driveline offsets? the write-ups don't seem to cover this aspect.

Original (or similar) engine and transmission? I'd put them right back where they came from, keep it simple.

Non original engine? Would moving it to the side a little help some other aspect of the install or make it more difficult? Either way is fine, but don't make unnecessary work for yourself.

different engine, an sbc and a 700R4. thx

Install the engine/trans on center and shorten up the forward driveline a few inches to minimize the offset angle the rear U joints have to run. It would be a pretty simple matter of moving the crossmember with the carrier bearing on it forward 3-4 inches.
Jerry

The new transmission I believe will be a lot longer than the original, one driveshaft might do the job. Consider max length and critical speed as explained in the Spicer drive shaft manuals.

Good suggestion. Thanks!