Let's talk pinion angle

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zhandfull

zhandfull

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Getting ready to put the rear end back in my Dart after some maintenance work. This is mostly a street car / occasional drag car. What pinion angle am I looking for? Seems like 2 to 3 degrees down is what I remember. So would that be down from drive shaft angle or from level? Does adjusting the pinion have an effect on launch 60' times or is it just for u joint survival?

Little side note I'm running 3"de arched SS springs and no pinion snubber.
 
I just finished changing my pinion angle on my 66 Dart(race car)to -4 down.I,ve also added CalTracs.Yes I,ve done this to get my 60ft times lower than the 1.50 I,ve already had.some like to go alittle more(-6)but I will start off with the -4 and add shims if more is needed.Good luck.:toothy10:

I would add a adj.snubber and adjust to about 1/2 inch from the floor.I welded a 1/4 inch plate to my floor where the snubber would hit.I don,t need my adj. snubber anymore with running the CalTracs now,so if your interested in a new adj. snubber?,PM me.
 
Use the method from Rossler Trans in that moparts link. That's the way I do mine.

Make sure your weight is in the drivers seat .
 
If everything is stock and mostly a street car, why mess with it at all?
 
cudamark said:
If everything is stock and mostly a street car, why mess with it at all?
Click to expand...

I've been surprised by some of the angles I've seen setting up cars. Had stock vehicles with horrible vibrations and + pinion angles. Reset them and all good.

If this is the car with the Dana it's more than just a light street car.

My suggestion, with SS spring go at least -5 on pinion angle. The angle will have an effect on how the car launches. I've seen SS spring cars with as much as -10. You don't want too much angle as it does get hard on the u-joints, -5 is a good number and not too terrible on the u-joint
 
cudamark said:
If everything is stock and mostly a street car, why mess with it at all?
Click to expand...

Yea this car has the dana 60 that the previous owner had built and installed. I did have some small vibrations that I'm hoping was caused by the pinion bearing being loose and preload not set right. I guess maybe when the gears were installed they didn't completly seat the bearing races allowing a way for the bearings to lossen up. So I had the rear end out to fix and thought I would check out the pinion angle when putting it back in.
 
Okay, then you'll definitely want to check that angle. Who knows at what angle the spring perches were welded.
 
Well my pinion angle was 10 degrees down. From experience I can tell you that is to much and produces bad vibrations. So I shimed it to 6 degrees down and it is much better, but there is still vibration. So I ordered some new shims to make it 4 degrees down. Hopefully that will make it perfect for drag strip and highway cruising.
 
It's harder to get with no snubber IMO. I like snubbers but regardless the two working angles have to cancel each other out and the tailshaft moves in all directions under load. So when doing pinion angle you should also verify the engine isn't pulling and lifting on the driver's side too much and the trans mount is in good shape otherwise you may be chasing a vibe from it moving sideways and adding to that working angle rather than the up/down plane of the pinion.
 
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