Front Shaft Angle

[Mudball]

I was wondering what most of you do to help relieve the u-joint angle on the front Samurai driveshaft at the T-Case?

My front shaft is starting to eat u-joints because of the angle. There isn't a lot of room to do much in there because of the crossmember on the frame, so I'm looking for ideas or pictures as to what you've done.

Thanks!

[TheSarg]

Thats kinda odd, cause if u have homebuilt hybrid axles the one big thing thats a good idea is to turn the knuckles, ie. rotating the pinion upwards to relieve some of the driveline angle stress.

I would check yer front shaft for trueness if u are eating u joints too, u might have a bent shaft that is the issue and not know it.


cheers

[Mudball]

With the lift on the truck, it seems like the shaft angle coming out of the t-case is severe.

The front is a stock axle tube (not a hybrid), so I know I have to make a compromise between driveshaft angle, and castor.

Here, I made this image to illustrate it:

http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h132/willwesreed/FrontDrivelineIssue.jpg

[TheSarg]

I'd wait for the pro's to chime in, but i would look and see if yer t case mounts have been altered by torque cause that seems a tad excessive. especially with your setup i would strongly reccommend cutting and turning your knuckles to compensate, it just seems like something is askew with yer case. just take a peep at yer intermediate shaft and see if it's sitting strait

[Depot]

from what I member, sammy t-cases always did sit back on a bit of an angle.. not as much as ur drawing though. 1 of my first steps was to drop my t-case and level it way back when about an 1". leveling it hurt the rear d-shaft angle but droping it 1" compensated and it helped the front a lot.


gl

D

[Mudball]

I think I am going to try that, but that raises another question:

How did you get the front d-shaft to clear the crossmember (The one the tranny mounts to)?

[zc911]

rackrat makes a nice easy repalcent front cross memeber, only $75, i can snap a pic tonight if you want. Cut out the old one and weld or bolt this one in.
And my tcase sits the same way

[szabotage]

dropping the t'cse down would help but then there may be some intermediate shaft bindage (depending on how much you lower it) how bout dropping the entire powertrain? it'll definitely be more work but soo worth it

[Depot]

I cut a chunk outta my crossmember out and welded in a big square over under and around the d-shaft to make it work. I know quite a few ppl here have dun that, maybe someone has a pic of it.

U can drop ur t-case 1 " with no jack shaft issues. ive seen guys go as much as 2" but thats a bit steep in my mind.

Droppin the whole drivetrain is a mother... motor mounts, tranny mounts, crossmembers (notice the s) and t-case mounts and all that requires a lot of mods. tis a whole lot easire to remove the t-case long and short arms and modify them to give u the 1" drop pluss angle correction.

gl

D

[Mudball]

Thanks for the info guys.. I'll get to work, and let you know what I come up with!