According to Bickel, a ladder-bar suspension normally requires degree of pinion angle, a four-link requires 1-2 degrees, and a leaf-spring suspension requires up to 6 to 7 degrees.

Changing Pinion Angle on a 1960 Corvette. We learned about mismatched pinion angles while building the chassis for our 1960 Corvette.The 348 big-block W-motor and 700R4 combination was mounted on ...

As you can see, we now have all green results because the front U-joint angle (Angle 1) and rear U-joint angle (Angle 2) are now within spec and the total operating angle is 3.2 – 2.2 = 1.0 degrees.

If these angles are off just a few degrees, the U-joints will not be in phase and you are setting yourself up for vibration. On rear axles with a double cardan-style ’shaft, the pinion and ...