pinion angle 2 piece driveshaft

So pretty much if it was all o deg. it would work?
Or
If the front trans is 3 deg. up, you make the other shaft coming out 3 deg. up , then you will do the rearend housing 3 deg. up or 3 deg. down.

Did you bag yours or have somebody do it?
Mine is own a 4 link so , mu housing is also pointing down, by shorting the bottom arms with pull my housing up, but might need to redo my bottom bag brackets. Hell the guy I got it from had it done, but didnt know what they were doing. It doesnt even have bolts in the bottom of the bags Been sliding around on the mounts.

Pro53, no I didn't bag the rear myself. I had it done by someone. I did do the front myself.

Tutt, thanks for the picture. It really helps. Now I just have to get these angles right.

DZL1.

The angles should be opposite but never the same, if your 3 down in the front you want to be 4 up at the axle. You want to be one degree off. Don't ask me why ask I can't remember the exact reason but air ride technology had a great article on this several years ago. I don't know if I still have it but will try to dig it up when I get back to my office next week. If they are the same or more than 5 degrees or so, you will get vibrations. The article is really in depth and explains it really well.

Thanks krewzlo, looking forward to reading that article if you can find it.

DZL1.

you want the trans to be parallel to the first drive shaft and the pinion of the axle. so if the trans is pointed "up" (front is lower than the back), then the pinion would be pointed "down" (front is lower than the back).

In reference to them needing to be a few degrees off from each other, this is to account for "axle wrap". the pinion will come up slightly when torque is being applied. in an effort to have everything parallel when going down the road, it can help to put the pinion a degree or two lower than "perfect".

Thanks, will be pulling the bed off next week and will let everybody know how it comes out.

What I learned from my research (Inland Empire Driveshaft & a couple other sources mainly) . . ... If the angles are exact, the needle bearings don't rotate properly. By keeping a minimal difference (<1

This correct except the rear should be up 2 up. And this only applies to running leaf springs. When you accelerate, running leaf springs the axle twist and the pinion comes up. If the trans was at 3 down and second shaft would be 3 down as well. Then the pinion would be set to 2 up. When you accelerate the pinion will come up 1-1.5 degrees to match the 3 at at the trans.
Running 3 or 4 link the pinion does not lift under acceleration, there is no axle twist. Therefore the pinion needs to be set to the same angle as the trans and first shaft. The driveshaft center support bearing will have some movement at all times, therefore the the needle bearings at the joint between the trans and the first shaft will always move even though they are at the same degree, and not give failure due to no movement.
Air ride complicated things buy having it's customers jacking angles at all joints to ultimately reach 0 degrees. cancelling out each angle to reach 0 works... but it adds confusion. I had the article too and and did work for me when I had the truck set up with a static drop. But when I did my 3 link I contacted Spicer, they sent me a link to this which explains the proper way stated already on this thread.

I can't find the damn article, I will keep looking at home tonight.