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Hi. I recently swapped in a matching pair of 10-bolt axles from an '88 1/2 ton suburban into my '61 1/2 ton Apache. The axles are perfectly lined up and dead on center. However, when I went to install the driveshafts, I found that they didn't line up with my transfer case (t221). I did a double take. I triple checked all my measurements and everything is perfectly symetrical and even with the frame and suspension. Does anybody know why this has happened, and has anyone run into this problem before? And also, will running a crooked driveshaft cause any noticeable problems? Obviously, I can't drive it as it's still just a frame. Any help is appreciated.

Matt

How about some pictures of what is going on. Its hard to imagine that you could have everything centered up and not have them lined up.

As far as I know a t221 is a center output not offset. If your tc output is centered and your rear end yoke is centered, they should line up.

You cannot run a crooked driveshaft unless you want to tear up u joints and take the chance of putting the shaft in a bind. How far off are they? Jeepers transpanting V8s regularly offset their engines/trans/tc setup one inch.

Chris

You can run an offset in the driveshaft, as long as the yoke on the tranny and the yoke on the differential I'll try to find a diagram of what I'm talking about.
Many times, the yoke is not centered in the axle,
9" fords come to mind. if it's offset a little to one side or the other, no biggie.
Like I said, I'll go try to find a driveline angle diagram that I can post for you.

posted 06-17-2005 08:06
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*EDITED*
You can run an offset in the driveshaft, as long as the yoke on the tranny and the yoke on the differential Are parallel. I'll try to find a diagram of what I'm talking about.
Many times, the yoke is not centered in the axle,
9" fords come to mind. if it's offset a little to one side or the other, no biggie.
Like I said, I'll go try to find a driveline angle diagram that I can post for you.
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I tried a couple different ways of posting this, if the image doesnt appear here, just click I guess. As long as your angles are parallel, as shown in the diagram, you're okay.


http://www.carcraft.com/howto/91758/#

[img]http://www.carcraft.com/howto/91758/#[/img]

Yeah, that didn't work like I wanted, just click the link, and scroll down about half way, the diagram I'm refering to is half way down the page on the right. As long as your angles are "Equal and Opposite" you're fine.

Chipolte,

Having only stared at the axle on my '60 briefly, I seem to remember that the input is shifted to the passenger side slightly on these 55t axles. If the input on the 10 bolt is centered, could this be accounting for your problem?

Brian

differentials are usually offcentered a bit - and if yer talkin 4x4 here [transfer case?] then the front differential is very off center - are you using axles from a 2wd?
running w/ a drive shaft that angles side to side on top of the usual up and down angle wouldn't sound good to me - at the least I'd expect U-joints will not last long!
pictures?

Bill

Thanks for the replies. I'll try to get pictures later this afternoon. The axles are from a 4x4 suburban. I didn't center the pinion on the axle because i knew that it wasn't centered on the axle itself. Anyway, I'll get some pictures up and we'll go from there. Thanks guys.

Matt

Ok. Here's some pictures.

[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/chipotledude05/IM000209.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/chipotledude05/IM000215.jpg[/img]

As you can see, there is a slight offset. I flipped the factory shims around to tilt the axle up to where it is in the pictures. That seemed to correct the offset by more than half. I think I either need to cut off the perches and weld them on at a higher angle, or buy a set of higher degree shims to correct the low pinion angle. Let me know if I'm on track.

Matt

Ok. I have moved my perches forward to increase the pinion angle. It has improved the offset a little more, as well as decrease the stress on the joints. Thanks for your replies.

Matt

My bad, I thought you were talking about left-right offset.

I think you'll be fine with that setup, a little steeper than optimum, but perfectly acceptable compared to what most lift kits cause on a stock late model truck. By some lifetime Spicer Ujoints and you can take them back when they wear out.

Chris