Since my pinion angle is a mess, I figured I'd check here before buying new. Maybe someone has some laying around they aren't using....
If you buy new which I suggest regardless,..TRZ has the best I've seen and are the cheapest actually,...I love Metco stuff too,..either one,..the Metco is built like a tank,...and he's a lifelong Buick guy too
What does the crank pulley have to do with pinion angle? You measure at the tail shaft, and at the rear pinion yoke. The tail shaft should be pointing down. Once you have that angle, then measure at the rear yoke. The pinion moves up under power. So lets say your tail shaft is pointing 2* (-2) down. You would want the rear level, because under power, it would come up 2* (+2). http://www.buickperformanceclub.com/Pinion.htm These are the ones I use, https://metcomotorsports.com/muc00s9 I also use the lower ones, They are awesome pieces. The first year I ran my 470 at Cecil, I had a very difficult time hooking up. Had to lower the DR's down to 14 psi. It had stock upper and lower control arms. The next year, I had installed both Metco arms. The car hooked every time. They are much stronger than the stockers. https://metcomotorsports.com/mca0009
UMI makes good upper and lowers. Brett your drive line angles are not a surprise. I have the same deal, but works well. Packaging is always a consideration when your engine/trans is down 3+ degrees at the rear. If your pinion is up much (for an opposite offset), the ds will hit the body or cross supports so be careful how much you go up with the pinion.
Hi Brett, by packaging I mean getting things to fit within the chassis/existing components during suspension articulation. Ideally if your engine/trans is down 3deg. then "ideally" the rule is to have the rear up 3deg. under load (which might be 1 or 2 deg up static to allow for loaded movement upward). I can attest that this is not a hard fast rule, just desirable. I have the same issue but my pinion is about level, due to the limited space above the ds. My car is lowered as well contributing to this limitation.
Read the article I linked from George N's site. http://www.buickperformanceclub.com/Pinion.htm The best place to measure is off the end of the transmission across the seal surface. Why would you measure at the front of the engine?, How would you measure off the crank pulley or balancer? Both of them could have some run out. You are introducing a number of potential sources of of error between the front of the engine and back of the transmission. You are looking for the drive line angles. Measure across the rear seal surface of the transmission, and the front facing surface of the rear yoke.
I fully understand pinion angle. I could write the same article with my vast knowledge of the subject....but I digress I'm sure Brett found the most easily assessible place to put the gauge. There is some slight variance, but you should be able to get a fairly accurate reading off the balancer. I really dont think the balancer is at too much of a different angle that the optimum place to measure it. Unless Brett has a bent crankshaft....
I had to correct my driveshaft angle with transmission mount shims to equalise the u joint angles after setting pinion angle.
Again, look at his measurements. How could that be fairly accurate? Why would you measure at the balancer when it is very easy to just measure off the rear transmission seal surface. Why make things difficult?
