Does pinion angle change when there is weight in the bed?

[Briman]

In other words. If you cause the rear of the truck to squat, either by adding weight to the bed or putting trailer tongue weight on the hitch does the pinion go up or down or stay the same. Thanks for your input.

 

[rbattelle]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong...



Pinion angle is not affected by axle position. It's the angle at which the driven gear meets the ring gear. This is set when the axle is manufactured.

 

[BillGotthelf]

The pinion angle will decrease slightly when the bed is lowered by adding weight. There is some pinion angle changes engineered into the truck as the angle changes constantly (very small amount) as you drive.

 

[Briman]

Thanks Bill - so when you say it will decrease, that means the front of the differential goes down slightly, right? Thanks Again.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Basically your drive line gets straighter as you add weight to the bed.

 

[randyn]

The pinion angle you're concerned with is the angle between the pinion shaft and the drive shaft. There may also be an angle between the pinion gear and ring gear, but I don't know about that. Ususlly the drive shaft angles down from the transmission to the rear differential. You want the angle between the drive shaft and the rear differential to be the same angle as that between the drive shaft and the transmission. Sitting at rest most vheciles will have a little more angle in the rear to allow for some slight twist while driving. Torque is trying to lift the front end of the differential where it attaches to the drive shaft. If these angles are not the same, vibrations will be induced to the drive train, sometimes a lot. I would think that the more the angles are different the more vibrations would insue, but am not sure about that, there's probably more involved than just the angles at that time.



RandyN