It has been awhile and I have since lost my instructions on how to adjust the torque arm for pinion angle. I am sure for drag set ups -2* is what you want so when you accelerate you will end up with a zero piniion angle at WOT.
I put in a Dana S60 and had to shorten the torque arm length, using the adjuster nuts. I subtracted the angle found on the torque arm mount plate from the angle of the driveshaft. That should be the pinion angle, correct? The pinion in pointed down and it seems right, I just want to make sure, Any thoughts?

 

Yes. You want the pinion and driveshaft forming a "\/" pointing down. The difference between the two angles should be 2-degrees.

 

Thats what I thought and thats were she is set. Thanks

 

I have to disagree with -2*.....each car is different. I set up one car with -4* and the car left incredible hard and had no u-joint issues.... If you had it at -2* before the rearend swap you can leave it there, or add a little -* to it and get a little more bite off the line.

again just my .02

 

The Dana s60 moves the torque arm mounts out and closer to the tranny by 1/2". I had to modify the torque arm mount bracket and readjust the length to get it to bolt in. I needed a starting point and will go from there. With a completely new back half under the car, I have A LOT of sorting to do.

 

Sounds like you've got a lot of test-n-tune nights ahead of ya....good luck

 

You have to have a starting point. Sure, the exact solution will differ, depending on the HP level and the flexibility of the TA. A rod end setup does not need the same degree of negative pinion angle as a poly bushing might. A very high HP car with poly bushings may take -4*. After swapping to the rod-end design, Steve Spohn set mine at -1.8*. Dead hooks. Before that I was running up to -4*. To me the prime concern is the keeping the DS straight, to avoid excessive load on the U-joints, and the resulting maldistribution of the resultant forces when the U-joint does not provide a constant velocity rotation, because it is at the wrong angle.

Setting pinion angle by measuring only the DS and the pinion is a short-cut in itself. You should start with establishing that the tranny output shaft and the pinion shaft are close to parallel. If they are skewed badly, the typical pinion angle adjustment is really hit or miss. Throw in issues like the dropped pinion centerline on the Ford 9-inch, or its offset to one side of the centerline of the chassis, and any rule of thumb goes out the window.

 

I actually feel a little overwhelmed with the whole set up of the car. I am trying to get a baseline and will adjust from there.New springs and adj. shocks out back. New rear end, 4.10 gears, slicks, new shocks and springs up front, new engine combonation. I'll start with the motor first, make sure it runs good and then go from there.
I never raced my old combo enough to have something to gauge off of. I had a very poor performing engine combo and chased my tail more there than anywhere else so I didn't get as much track time as I wanted.