The engine sets at 5° down to the rear and the pinion angle is 2.5° downward also, from what I'm reading this isn't good. My understanding is if engine is 5° down then pinion angle should be 5° up. My Ford 8" is in a '36 Ford with a CE rear end kit, with weight of the car on the rear axle I get 2.5° downward on the pinion. When 3rd member was rebuilt I was told the correct pinion angle would be set on rebuild but the rebuilder probably thought this was going back in a Ford Granada rather than my '36 that has engine sitting 5° downward to the rear. I figure the pinion has to be moved upward 7.5° now, does this correction all come through the 3rd member setup or is there a way of shimming the rear axle to rotate 7.5° up?
Angle is not set with rebuild. Rebuilding has nothing to do with pinion angle. The absolutely correct method would be to cut the perches off and reweld. Shimming might work, it IS how front caster is set on parallel leaf setups. Check with large truck alignment shops. I'd probably weld in a step to keep the shims from spitting out, even though the center bolt should do that. Cosmo
Cosmo, thanks for responding. I'll Give CE a call maybe they have shims, however these were the guys that told me if I could find an 8" out of a Granada I was good to go.
5* down is too much for your trans. Ideally it should be between 1* and 3* down and the pinion should be between 1* and 3* up.
5* down is also to much for your engine. The carburetor usually is level at 3* down. I would reset the angle of the engine & trans then reset the pinion to 3 *. Butch
Yes, 3 degrees down on the trans and 3 degrees up on the rear end. Those are the correct numbers, change it now and save yourself alot of problems later on. The trans can be brought up with a spacer at the rear mount, the rear end you need to cut the spring pads off, set them so the rear is 3 degrees up and then weld them back on. This will make the whole thing look like you did it the right way, because you will have. Spring pad wedges are not the right way to do it, they're the easy way to do it. Do it right.
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