Update on my axles

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 9:43 am

Turns out the driver's side axles was bent a little. When I went to pick it up last week they told me the runout on the flange was 0.020. After some more checking they found a high spot in the middle of the axle. They pressed it back straight and now the runout on the flange was just 0.005 then they machined it to 0 runout.

Got my tranny closed up this weekend and put back the clutch and bellhousing so far. Also put in a new pilot bearing while I had everything apart.

Next comes the 8.8 rebuild. Should be interesting. I purchased this DVD kit last week http://pages.prodigy.net/kennethl6/ and watched it this weekend. Actually pretty good.

Later
Malcolm

MercuRanger · Post by **MercuRanger** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 12:56 pm

Well, at least they found SOMETHING... Doesn't sound like enough to me to cause the vibration you were seeing, though.

You mentioned driveline angles before. I assume you haven't been able to check these yet, since the tranny's out. I'm curious to know if that's your problem, and if it is, how much the angle was out. I have a slight vibration in mine that I think may be driveline angle related. I know the back of my t-case is about 3/4" lower than stock, and it's back about 4-5" from stock (which likely aggravates the 3/4" lower).

Mike

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:11 pm

MercuRanger wrote:Well, at least they found SOMETHING... Doesn't sound like enough to me to cause the vibration you were seeing, though.

Yeah I don't think that was enough either. I'm hoping though.

I have to get the tranny back in and the rear axle re-assembled before I can get back to drive line angle. The machine shop told me a fairly accurate method is to put a small level on the part of the u-joint that goes into the tranny and the other that bolts up to the flange on the rear axle. The bubble should be in the same place.

Later
Malcolm

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Mon Dec 13, 2004 7:38 pm

I've always heard that the angle at rest should be with the RE yoke slightly negative (lower than the tranny), so that when the load is put to the RE, the RE winds the leafs which will point the yoke upward toward the tranny to straighten out the angle. Ideally, you want the angle straight all the time, but that's a pipedream with leafs...so I've always heard you want the angle slightly negative so that it's straight when it matters (heavily loaded). BTW, angle in a U-joint affects inefficiency.

As I mentioned on an older post, my leafs are so shot that my angle is positive most of the time and when I put the power to it, it goes further positive...so far the most undesirable side-effect is that I burn out U-joints about every 30kmiles. Since Advance has a lifetime warranty on their Brute Force U-joints, I've only had to pay for the 1st set, and I'm on my 4th now (I got 262kmiles on'er). A 2" lift helped the issue, but it's far from perfect...

I'm about to show my ignorance here...what do you do to set the angle? Adjustable Shackles? I've never cared to mess with the angle so I've never known how to.

Chris

blk94xlt · Post by **blk94xlt** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 1:36 am

You should be able to find shims to go between tha axles and the leaf springs to adjust the pinion angle. The shims look like triangles when looking at them from the side after they are installed. I think that they make them in differing degrees of adjustment so just figure out the size that you need.

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Tue Dec 14, 2004 7:00 am

That makes sense...I didn't even consider that. Now that you mention it, I have seen those triangle shims, but never paid them any attention.

Thanks, now I know.

Chris

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 12:29 am

Still working on the rearend rebuild. Going kinda slow as I'm waiting for parts to come in. Once I get it all back together and sitting on the ground I'll do more checking on that driveline angles and see were I'm at.

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:00 pm

Quick Update - Got my rearend completly reassembled and took it for a test drive. Vibe is about 99.9% gone. I'm very happy about that. I'm hoping the remaing very tiny vibe at about 70mph right as I let off the gas can be fixed with pinion angle shims.

I picked up an angle finder from Sears which has 1 degree markings but it's not very consistant. I had to wiggle it and use it over and over and over until I got an average reading. I think I'm getting about 1 degree on the tranny and about 4 degrees on the rearaxle flange (or was it the other way around, can't remember now). I was taking measurements on the flanges of the drive shaft.
I don't see how that tiny of a difference can cause the vibe but who knows. I'll probably pick up some 2 degree pinion shims from summit and see how that works. I think I'm going to run into a problem where the little pin from the leaf sping is not going to be long enough once the shim is in there but I'll deal with that later.

Malcolm

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:46 pm

How did the 3.27 RE gears reduce the RPMs? Was it noticeably lower/better?

Chris

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:53 pm

Yes very noticable. At first I thought man it's still a little steep and I should have probably gone to 3.08s but after cruising around a while I started liking it. I did about 40 miles last night just in back roads around my house and 2 short highway runs between exits. 3.27 seems to be slightly on the power / acceleration side but still good on the highway. I want to say it was around 2250 at 70mph which is not bad at all. My exhaust is to loud though. Those 2 chamber flows are going to have to go. I used to love them on my 95 GT and I didn't even have cats on it. I guess my taste has changed. Well that and the Ranger is not nearly as insulated as the Mustang was. The vibe from those muflers is a big much. I have some dynomax mufflers with only a few k miles in my shed. I'll pull them out and see if they will work.

cgrey8 · Post by **cgrey8** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 3:10 pm

That's great news that you got it all taken care of and that you are able to drive it now. It's been a long 4 years I know. As for the 3.27s, I'm also glad you give them good approval too. I'll be looking for an 8.8" RE as one of the next steps in my parts collection.

I hope I can learn from others and avoid my adventure taking 4 years. I love my 89 Ranger so much more than the 97, I don't know that I can do without it for that long. But I'm really burnin' for the V8 power too, so I'll sacrifice until I get it all done I guess.

It's really good news to hear it's running.

Chris

MalcolmV8 · Post by **MalcolmV8** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 5:21 pm

Don't worry you won't take 4 years. Actually I'm closer to 5 years. You shouldn't need more than a month with everything there and ready to go. Mine took forever because it was just a side project I liked to tinker on and I spent a lot of time tearing it apart to a bare frame and rebuilding it. Plus I didn't work on it consistantly. In that span of time I moved house, had a baby and other such life events.

Link's (I think his user name was Links93Splash or something like that) swap took 8 days including EFI.

Your down time shouldn't be to bad.

Malcolm

MercuRanger · Post by **MercuRanger** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:23 am

I'm approaching 5 years on mine as well, though I'm not restoring my truck at the same time. The other day I was thinking about the actual number of hours spent on the swap, and it's really not that many, considering. A few solid weeks/weekends and you should be back on the road. The more preparation you do in advance, the smoother it will go.

Mike