Tech

We get quite a few emails with drive shaft angle questions, recently we had a customer looking for help with some binding issues. We figured it would be a good tech note for others!

Stephen

It has been a few months but i finally got things almost back together.  The issue i have now is that my front drive shaft is binding at the axle joint.  With weight on the springs and the truck sitting on the ground it does not bind but as soon as i raise the truck about an inch or so it starts to bind. 

I noticed that these springs don't have a degree wedge. My old skyjacker 8” springs did have a wedge.  I think I  need to get some degree shims.  My plan is to loosen the u bolts and use a jack to rotate the axle and measure the change in angle.  How much can I safely rotate the axle.?  This is a stock dana 60.

The main cause of this is i had to move my drive train forward to clear the firewall which increased the driveshaft angle….

Thanks for your help 

Customer

Hi Customer, it's...

The pitman arm is a key part of any steering system involving a steering box, since it’s literally the part that bolts to the output shaft of the steering box.  So here are some details about various GM pitman arms and why we use the parts we do.

In the GM squarebody (and even earlier) world, the 4wd trucks use a different steering box output shaft and pitman arm arrangement than 2wds.  On a 4wd, the pitman arm points to the side of the truck and the draglink runs toward the back of the truck to the steering knuckle.  On a 2wd, the pitman arm points straight back and moves the centerlink side to side to move the tierods to steer the tires. 

The steering boxes between 2wd and 4wd are identical (except for internal tuning differences) except for the output shafts with the most important detail here being that the bolt pattern on the housing is the same so a 2wd box will bolt up directly in place of a 4wd box.  The steering boxes also move the output shaft the same direction...

Here’s a question we get all the time:  “What axle gears should I use for my combination?”

Obviously there are a lot of engine, transmission, tire size, vehicle weight and intended use combinations but here are some general guidelines and specific recommendations.

In general we like to gear a lifted truck to run more RPM rather than less.  Usually a lifted truck ends up with bigger tires, exterior accessories that add aerodynamic drag, the lift itself adding aerodynamic drag and often bigger axles, transfer cases and transmissions that make our power requirements greater.  Your typical lifted K5 Blazer can very easily end up with the equivalent load of a loaded down pickup so we tend to look at gearing systems for heavier rated factory trucks or towing packages for lighter rated factory trucks.  The big thing you see is that they’re geared deeper, no big secret.

The first thing to consider is if you need to gear for the road only or for offroad use also.  Typically with...

Below is a customer question about leaning springs and what to do to remedy the situation. We figured it could be helpful for many people:

A lean is fairly common and is a byproduct of a soft spring and kind of unique to this truck platform because the front springs’ mounting width is fairly narrow. A small difference in the height of the springs can make an exaggerated difference in side to side height and a small weight difference can also also cause an exaggerated ride height change. To put some numbers on it, the springs are about 32” center to center and the outside of the body where you see and measure is about 80”. The body has about 2.5:1 leverage over the springs so a ¼” change at the spring pad should convert to 5/8” at the body line. It also works the opposite for weight, any weight change has a big lever arm over the springs and makes itself look way bigger than it should.

We have yet to have a spring problem that was causing a lean so I’m betting your springs are just fine...

Best Way to Setup Your Steering Gearbox For Hydo Assist

Recently we were asked about the steering box end caps and why we don't offer a tapped one for hydro-assist. Since this is an often asked question we figured the answer could help a few others out as well!

"I'm planning a hydro assist conversion using the part below (tapped end cap for steering gearbox), tapping the other hole for the system in the aluminum cap on the top of the steering box (there's a link in his description to a video on youtube where a guy does this on a jeep). If you made a part like that, I'd buy it from you. Is there a specific reason that you don't make that, or wouldn't recommend it?"