FJ40 4" Skyjacker springs, stock length shackles
I thought that it may flipping the springs might angle the pinion a little differently, but holy cow! The pinion is almost perfectly level. Nobody said anything about this.
How do I fix this? I have stock length shackles, do I have to go with lift shackles? Would that cure the problem? Or do I have to shim it to rotate it back up a little?

I need info asap because I was hoping to have this thing together by this weekend and I need to know what to buy now that I have another problem.

Someone has got to know the answer to this. Hopefully it has not been answered only because it is late. I did a search for it and could not fing any mention of pinion angle after flipping springs

I gotta know. :confused:

I dont really know about the 4" thing. When I flipped mine it didnt change it that much on the back. As far as I can see its shim, shackle, or reweld the perch. Good luck!:D

Joey

Most people that flip their springs do so with flat springs during a spring over.

By doing this with an arched spring you have put the "flat spot" in the wong place causing your rear pinion to be flat...also causing it to possibly bind when the suspension droops.

As was said above, the ways to fix this are shims or new perches.

If I were you I would turn the springs back to where they were designed to be and beign plans for that spring over :)

I have 5 inch alcans that are fliped on my truck. all i have is a 4* shim and it works fine. No vibrations or binding. So shims should work fine for you.

Ok, so now where do I get the shims? No shops around me have them.

Ok, so now where do I get the shims? No shops around me have them Why don't you order them???? From just about any 4 wheel drive shop or car and/or race shop.

Jeff

LCAH is in Albany, Oregon and should have what you need up your way....

even still no matter what you do with it, when the springs flex, the pinion will rotate down and away from the case and cause binding

shims are quick easy cheap
http://4crawler.cruiserpages.com/4x4/ForSale/Shims.shtml
thats a guy from this board interesting info and how to make your own aswell!!

flat springs..spring over
www.ih8mud.com

I ordered some from Specter for $12 bucks. I'll give them a try and if I don't like them I'll try the steel ones.

Longer shackles wouldn't really cure the problem would they? Wouldn't they just cause more lift and lead to even more problems?

coyote- 4 words about LCAH--- I don't think so!
Been there and don't care to revisit those feelings! :mad3:

To combat the pinion wanting to go downward I am just going to make a trac bar like one from where else, IH8MUD. It can't cause that many problems doing what I did or so many people would not have done it. I'm talkin about I have seen some redneck backwoods can't read but can weld like a motha jerry-rigged suspensions and they're still wheelin. All I did was put the longer arch on the opposite side of the axle. Hell, it was just dumb luck that they were on the right way to start with. The installation instructions said nothing about placement of long and short side. I was surprised to see that I didn't have any turned around already.

The shims I am running are the spector ones and they have held up for a couple months.

Longer shackles will help the problem. I would actually do that first over a shim if it were me. The shackle will only lift the one end of the body and help bring it back to the same angle.

isnt LCAH the shop you were bragging about when you came to my place? I thoght you LOVED them! :flipoff2:

Why is your pinion wanting to go downward? Axle wrap usually goes upward right? Do you get that much wrap with SUA? How bad is your pinion angle anyway? Correct me if I am wrong but I dont think the pinion travels very far on the rear during flex.

Pinion should stay at about the same angle - compressed or extended. I thought level for the pinion was a good thing. You want the pinion at the same angle as the transfer case shaft. If you got that, you should be fine. Are you getting vibration?

Two shops I've been to said the aluminum shims are junk. They will eventually crack and break. One shop is a Land Cruiser only business the other a specialty driveline shop. Both shops use brass. That is what I have. I've had great luck with them so far. They are more than $12 though.

The aluminum ones I would imagine be more brittle than brass, but brass seems to be a little to soft to work for any length of time. Wouldn't they eventually wear down and loose their angle?

Somebody that knows for susre answer, but doesn't axle wrap result from the pinion rolling forward (down) upon acceleration?

My pinion being level when I held up the driveline seemed that it would put such a tilt on the ujoint that it would bind up almost immediately. The driveline is at a pretty good angle 30* maybe, and I may be wrong but the 0* of the pinion and the 30* of the shaft just don't seem to go together. :confused: I thought that it would be better to point the pinion slightly upward to lessen the difference in angles between the two parts. Someone please correct me if this thought is wrong. I don't want to mess anything up.

Those steel shims seem pretty good and if the aluminum ones that I ordered are crap I will just go with them.

I have thought about just doing the SOA, but it seems like a lot of time and $$$ and I don't want the cruiser any higher than it is.
I even found someone that will do the work for me but the more I hear about making sure to get everything right and all about the nickel and diming of it the less I want to do it. Plus I have a body lift on now and my exhaust utilizes the space so I would have to pull it out and have my exhaust done again. I just paid $300 for exhaust work last May.
I have the LCAH SR that sticks out a mile that I would like to get rid of at the same time, but then that makes more work and questions also.
If someone could give me an exact answer on what to do, what springs to use, and how to do it, and an estimate on cost I would probably do it. Right now I have 6 1/2" of lift total with the 4" spring and 2 1/2 body. I would actually like to go SOA and lose about and inch and I would be happy. I have 37" boggers and have more than enough room and I am getting tired of climbing up into the beast.

I just went and took a better look at my pinion angle and it is flatter than I thought. In fact it is slightly pointed down.

Since I am taking it apart to shim it I have a question- I didn't ofset drill the pin holes by 1" but may now, will that just make the angle worse by moving it further back on the arch?
I figure for the 4 1/2" gain of wheelbase I'll put up with the small hassle of shimming and such.

I am going to flip the front springs and if ofset drilling the pin hole in the rear makes the angle more I can just use the shims that I already ordered in the front and go with the steel ones in the rear. Think I could do that?
That way when done I would have 9" more wheelbase, that should put me about 99" total right?

I would try to use extended shackles first. Spector states that a 3" over stock shackle would be the same result as a 6 degree shim. I would try this and save the shim for the front end.

If you drill back on the perch it will make the angle worse. It will also give you worse axle wrap. I am pretty sure but not positive that the pinion rotates up on accel.

Rear pinion rotates up, front rotates down. The diffs are the same, but you spin them opposite directions.

Got in on this late, actually thought an answer would surface and that would be the end of it. I flipped my 4" skyjackers, with 1.5" longer rear shackles (to match SR), have 2F power and 38" tsl's. So take this into consideration as you read my response. And as always, I have learned a ton from my personal experiments, and many here on this board have contributed their experiences, but we can all be wrong, or missunderstood. So please share the errors of my ways, I want to learn from my mistakes.

Axle wrap as a result of power applied in the forward direction will drive the nose of the pinion up, or the opposite direction the wheels are trying to turn. The opposite applies in reverse, and I don't think it's any better or worse based on direction. Your 4" skyjackers won't wrap a noticable amount with 2F power, where SOA stockers will. I personally don't think you need a traction bar in this configuration.

Are you checking the pinion angle while the Cruiser is on the ground with normal weight on the wheels? How does it compare to the transfer case output flange. Ideal is these two at the same angle. 15 deg either way is acceptable and should cause no vibrations or early wear. However since the droop of my configuration is minimal (comapred to flat SOA's) pointing down some will not likely cause a failure or breakage. Remember the pinion will rotate up under forward high traction situations.

With that said, the easiest (or maybe cheapest) solution is a shim, which most truck spring shops have real cheap. Not offroad places, the suspension shops that work on big trucks. Good source for bushings and spring friction pads also.

My biggest problem now is the pinions themselves at near stock angles are exposed to the terrain when wheeling. That is why high pinions are the hot set up for the extreme wheelers. I am planning to turn the pinions up at the tcase and run a cv joint in the back and probably live with it in the front, since it will only be used at slower speeds were the vibration isn't an issue. Some FJ60's had a long front cv shaft that can be shortened easily, so long as the limited slip joint offers enough movement.

Anyone else notice how the big boys deal with this? Staps to limit droop at the pinion, and bumpstops at the compression side.

Always consider the final useage as the guigeline. If you are driving it often, on the street, and at freeway speeds the rear pinion angle in realtion to the tcase will be more important. At slow wheeling speeds, under 30mph, it isn't an issue.