Trans tailshaft to pinion alignment dilemma.....

Stupid question........


Looking down from above the car, does the trans tailshaft, driveshaft and pinion have to be in a straight line? Mine is not and probably will not be without some major work!

I know the tailshaft can be higher/lowerin the vertical plane, but I'm not sure about the horizontal plane.

I've always tried to keep things in line. A little variation might be acceptable, but the straighter the better in my opinion.

how far is it off?

Maybe 2" at the most. Might be a little less. Can't get a good square measurement on it. Driveshaft will end up being about 48-50" u-joint to u-joint.

Personally, I wouldn't be comfortable with that much misalignment. If it was a daily driver deal, maybe, but never in a drag racing application.JMO

Isn't it true that on chevys and mopars the motor/tranny are offset and the diff is centered? And on Fords the motor and tranny are centered and the diff is offset? Don't that mean that the driveshaft on a ford will go from center at the tranny tailshaft to slightly to the passenger side to mate with the 9"?


I don't know for sure about this. That is why I'm asking. I'm curious as well.

John,

Stock engine location is offset to the passenger side about 1.5 to 1.75" is yours no lon longer offset or did the previous owner put the rear in square?

When I did my fronthalf i forgot about the rear end offset, I centered the motor in the chassis. Rear is over about an inch, its been this way for 4 years and all passes ranged from 9.70's-9.0's. IMO you want it even, but alittle off aint gonna be the end of the world.

Rear looks like the pinion is centered in the chassis. I bought the car as a roller so I've never seen a driveshaft in it to get a good idea of just how far it is off. Just by eyeballing it the other night with a straightedge it looks about 2" max. My plan is to run it unless I can slide the engine over to the left some if the headers and steering shaft will allow it.


Isn't the Mustang (Fox) from the factory running a centered pinion? I know the engine is offset because of the steering and master cylinder.

I don't think there really is any rhyme or reason as to why one vehicle has a factory crank/drive train C/L offset & another doesn't. I think all of the manufactures have used both centered & offset centerlines (viewed from above) at one time or another.

If you take for example the 1980 (might have been 81) Ford truck I had with a 300" 6 cyl & standard trans there was a ton of factory pinion offset so the driveshaft would clear the decently wide gas tank sitting inside the frame rails. That truck was a U-joint destroyer and I had to replace them many times during it's life. But did the U-joints repeatedly fail because of the offset, or the fact that it had a clutch & I was hard on the truck? Maybe it's a little of both.

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm hoping to get the glide in there by Friday and I'll pull some more exact measurements then.

Just my Link: http://www.baselinesuspensions.com/info/pinionangle.htm

Umm I'm using a tall Truck trans mount! This works for me!

Hope this is helpfull..

richter69 wrote:When I did my fronthalf i forgot about the rear end offset, I centered the motor in the chassis. Rear is over about an inch, its been this way for 4 years and all passes ranged from 9.70's-9.0's. IMO you want it even, but alittle off aint gonna be the end of the world.

Agree with Jon!