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Degree Shims For A '76 K-10

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Old Chevy

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Hi,

I have a 1976 Chevy 1/2 ton 4x4 shortbox pickup that I put a 6" Tuff Country lift kit in and I also have shackles that are 1/2" longer than stock. I was going to purchase some degree shims for the front end to help the driveshaft angle and I was wondering if anyone would know how many degrees I should use? I wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions before I bought them. Also does anyone know where you can buy the steel degree shims? Thanks for any help you can send my way.

Old Chevy
 
Thanks mechted and also thanks for the link to JKW Offroad.

I have seen on some driveshaft charts that when using a CV joint it says that the pinion should be directly inline with the driveshaft,but I don't think I could use a shim that would tilt the pinion up far enough without messing up my steering?

I have heard that if you use a shim with too high of degrees in the frontend that it will change the caster and the pickup will wander all over the road.This pickup is used mostly as a daily driver so I was wondering if I could get by with a 2 or 3 degree shim? I was thinking about using a 2.5 or 3 degree shim but the pinion won't be directly inline with the driveshaft, would that be ok since the four wheel drive is only used at low speeds?


Old Chevy
 
there should be a slight angle difference between the pinion and the shaft... about 2* or less to allow for axle wrap. so the pinion should be slightly flatter than the driveshaft... if the makes sense
 
Just out of curiosity, why do you feel the need to shim it? I have a 6" TC lift on my 76 Blazer with a D60 swapped in. The angle isn't great, but you don't drive it in four wheel drive at 60 mph down the highway. Most of the time when you use the front, you are crawling and the angle is less critical. I had HAD build my driveshafts and I went with a 1350 CV up top and a 1410 down at the diff. Jesse says even without shimming and the angle, I shouldn't have any problems at low speeds. Obviously having the pinion angle set perfectly is preferable but it can cause problems if you rotate it too far. The ideal fix is to cut, rotate, and re-weld your inner kingpin C's.
 
Thanks once again for everybody’s help.

I was going to use shims to help the driveshaft angle. Would I be better off not using shims and leave the driveshaft angle the way it is so I don’t mess up my steering ,because this pickup is used mainly as a daily driver and the four wheel drive is only used at low speed ?

Old Chevy
 
Old Chevy said:
Thanks once again for everybody’s help.

I was going to use shims to help the driveshaft angle. Would I be better off not using shims and leave the driveshaft angle the way it is so I don’t mess up my steering ,because this pickup is used mainly as a daily driver and the four wheel drive is only used at low speed ?

Old Chevy
Click to expand...

Shimming the front end will change your caster. If your truck has 6 degrees of caster from the factory, shimming it up 2 degrees will subtract 2 degrees from the factory spec and you will have 4 degrees of caster.

As you said, the less caster you have the more the truck will "wander".

Unless you have binding issues at the axle u-joint (I have never heard of anyone having binding issues with 6" lift or less) then I would leave it.

If you have full time 4WD and are having vibration problems, you will need to grind out the welds on the inner c's, rotate the pinion to the angle you want, rotate the c's to the correct caster angle and weld everything back up.
 
What he said. Although, cutting, grinding, and welding is expensive and time consuming. If you have an NP203, I'd convert it to part time or swap in an NP205 first.
 
The pickup is part time 4WD with an NP205.

I guess I will run it with out shims.

I really appreciate the advice you all have given me. Thanks!

Old Chevy
 
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