Front Drive Shaft Issues with lift kit.

[WBraico]

My son just bought a 93 W250 with probably a 4 to 6" lift kit. Is there an economical way to hook up the drive shaft with out buying an expensive high angle shaft, He doesn't want to shim the diff. it has about 3 degrees of angle up already, he ground the stops on the cv joint for more angle now it looks like we have to give more clearance to the cross member. Has any one done a lift of more than 4" on a first gen. Successfully ?



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[HPetrat]

One of the simplest ways to get some clearance on the t-case end of the front drive shaft (and get splines centered more) is to use a simple 1/4" to 1/2" spacer between the cv joint flange and the t-case output flange.



Some things to check with a simple angle finder;



1). the center line angle of the pinion gear and the t-case output shaft should be within 1* - 1. 5* to each other



2). the driveshaft operating angle (actual driveshaft angle - pinion angle = operating angle) should be between 3* to 5* and at the very maximum of 7*.



3). consider your vehicle use, if you have free-whelling hubs and do no (or very little) driving over 40 mph in 4X4, then these angles can be somewhat greater, but it will come at a price. Usually premature u-joint failures and excessive vibration.



I would not recommend shimming the front axle as this usually creates all kinds of issues with steering geometry such as constant wandering and diving in corners (if you think about it as steering on the road vs. trying to steer into the road).



If you take your time to check and double check everything, most properly lifted vehicles are safe and usually perform better than OEM.



Good luck, & some pictures maybe?



HP