Drivetrain angle, how much is too much?

[hokie_yj]

I'm at the point in my build mounting the drivetrain. I sat it in the chassis this weekend and right now I just have it sitting on blocks, close to where it needs to be. It's a tight fit, especially with the pinion on the rear axle (rear engine buggy). I currently have the whole drivetrain sitting at about 10* slope, measured off the back of the block. If I raise the front of the motor another inch or two it would help some with clearance issues. It would probably put me around 15* +/- a couple degrees. This is my first time ever doing anything like this, and I'm learning as I go. I'm not sure how much angle is too much, or if there really can be too much angle? So, can somebody smarter than me lead me in the right direction.

The drivetrain is a LQ9/Powerglide/Atlas. I currently have a front sump GTO pan on the motor, but i'm going to have to swap it back to a rear sump pan because the oil filter and sump are going to be in the way of the driveshaft. I'm not too worried about oiling issues because I'm going to run a baffled oil pan, plus a 3 QT. accumulator. Here's the build thread so you can see what I'm talking about. http://www.hardlinecrawlers.com/forums/index.php?topic=23417.0

 

[hokie_yj]

Bump, any input?

 

[RustyC]

The 4.3 is up a bit in my rear engine to allow for oil filter clearance. I'm not sure of the angle off the top of my head. Mine has a low ride height and the drive shafts are almost flat with the flipped 9" on each end.
Common sense make me think that the lower the angle the better. It the yokes don't come close to binding everything should be good.

Maybe pull a string between the yokes and measure the angle or built a mock up pvc driveshaft and check.

 

[hokie_yj]

Re: Drivetrain angle, how much is too much?

I'm not worried about the driveshaft angles. The front is gonna be a pretty straight shot, the rear will require a carrier bearing, and I knew it would. I'll most likely go with the one from WOD. I'm running flipped 9" axles too. I'm just concerned with angling the motor and transmission up too much and hurting it somehow.

 

[RustyC]

Oh gotcha DRIVETRAIN angle not driveshaft angle. I failed at reading today I guess.
I don't see an issue as long as the engine oil can drain back properly to the pan and oil pickup is happy. Trans pickup should be fine as well.

Calibrated dipsticks may or may not be needed.

 

[hokie_yj]

Re: Drivetrain angle, how much is too much?

Yeah, I knew the drivetrain part would be confusing. Lol. I'm pretty confident that the oiling will be ok, the motor will be tilted back toward the sump, and I'm going to use a trap door style baffled pan.

Basically I feel like this will be fine. I just want to hear it from somebody else to reassure me. Lol