Driveline/brake line issues after SOA (please help)

[Baddecision93]

Ok...finished my lift & I'll admit I didn't turn out to be terribly proficient at it. But it's done and it looks sweet. But there's still some "rough edges" to smooth out.

First off, I did a 4" Rough Country in the front and spring over axle in the rear.
The front (for the most part) is good to go after an alignment. The back, surprisingly, is giving me problems.

To distill it down, the driveshaft seems short, it vibrates, and I've got a bad brake leak at the passenger wheel cylinder. For more details see below.


Driveline:
Ok, so I ended up having to disconnect the driveshaft from the differential to slide the axle back. I marked the flange and the "ear" of the driveshaft with marking paint but the driveshaft paint came off (Ok, so I didn't use paint, I used a soapstone; rookie mistake I guess).
The driveshaft pulled out of the tube right away so I know it needs lengthened. But aside from that when I got it back in and drove it there was a fierce vibration. I know if I put it back on wrong this could affect it.

My pinion angle is set way too downward so I'm going to loosen my axle u-bolts and try to tilt the axle back and refasten them. If this gets my spline in a reasonable amount forward should I attempt just disconnecting the drive shaft at the diff and flipping it 180 degrees and reinstalling it? (to try to cure the vibration/balance issue).
Also, should my pinion be as close to level as possible? It's at pointed pretty downward right now. My dad has a 2000 Mounty and it's angle isn't perfectly zero (90 degrees) so I'm not sure how exactly it should look.

Brakes:
Ok, I'm pretty sure the passenger wheel cylinder is leaking. I hear a "crunch" or "grinding" from in the drum when I roll the truck. I can probably take apart the drum and figure it out. I'm fairly confident this happened when the axle fell off the jackstand...I made a judgement call for the drum to hit the floor instead of my fingers.
But my REAR ABS light is on, as well as my red BRAKE light.
Now, I cut my e-brake line off (because it wasn't working anyway - very poorly installed previously) so that might be the reason for the red BRAKE light but I wouldn't think it would have anything to do with ABS. I cut it at the back on the driver side of the frame and just pulled it all out, by the way.
I guess my only questions for the brakes are:
Can the e-brake cable being cut affect anything other than the e-brake operation?
Will low brake fluid in the back (due to a leak) cause the ABS light to come on or should I be looking for something else I screwed up?

If you guys can give me any input I'd be forever grateful.

 

[Baddecision93]

Ok, too wordy or???

 

[Riceburner247]

Haha, although this site is the "go-to place" for explorers, it's not very busy. Give it time.

PINION ANGLE
If you're looking to adjust the pinion angle, the easiest thing to do would be to pick up adjusting wedges. They go between the spring pack and perch on the axle. I think you can pick them up at places like NAPA and such.

BRAKES
This part isn't rocket science, you obviously need to pull apart that rear brake assembly and see what's going on. The E-brake is disconnected on my 92 and I get no warning lights, and low fluid level would be an easy thing to check. If you're fluid is up to level, then you probably fubar'd something in that rear assembly.

All in all, not too bad if this is your first lift. The only way to learn from your mistakes is to make them.

 

[Flip4ford]

Your pinion angle should be measured with an angle guage BEFORE you unbolt it from the springs. That way you know what angle it should be when reinstalling it. Did you weld the new spring perch pads on at the new angle or did you follow the 1drg above level rule? 1 degree above level puts it at level ounder load (going down the road)

Did you flip your ubolt brackets and attach you shocks there?

The grinding noise and vibration could be from broken brake pads, or other components from the dropping mishap (good choice on saving the fingers though-- they are harder to find parts for)

Hope that helps.

 

[Baddecision93]

Thanks guys.

Those perch angle adjusting wedges won't work I think because of how solidly those perches are welded. I could try to put them on top between the leaf and the top of the perch maybe? but I'm not sure how safe that would be.

As far as using a gauge, we probably should have. Dad just eyeballed it and checked with me. I thought it looked good, I was wrong.
We got the side to side perfect but I'm really questioning the angle now due to how the pinion sets.

My friend's shop was locked up last night so hopefully I can poke around tonight and see what I can find.

 

[Baddecision93]

Pinion angle

Ok, so gonna try again for a response about pinion angle.

Looked at my perches last night and they are NOT welded correctly with the old.

So when I re-do them should I try to get the pinion pointed slightly up so that the driveshaft is "in line" as much as possible from tranny to differential?

 

[Riceburner247]

Those wedges are made to be used between the spring pack and spring perch, your logic is correct.

If you're trying to rid vibration due to driveline angle, you need to make sure the angle of the driveline is the same at both U-joints. The angle of the driveline on the transmission end should match the angle of the pinion end. If you don't match angles, then your u-joints are rotating at different speeds and creating vibration.

The way to get around that is to run a double cardan at the transmission end...

...and I don't think that's what you're going for.

 

[Baddecision93]

Those wedges are made to be used between the spring pack and spring perch, your logic is correct.

If you're trying to rid vibration due to driveline angle, you need to make sure the angle of the driveline is the same at both U-joints. The angle of the driveline on the transmission end should match the angle of the pinion end. If you don't match angles, then your u-joints are rotating at different speeds and creating vibration.

The way to get around that is to run a double cardan at the transmission end...

...and I don't think that's what you're going for.

Ya....I can change the angle of the spring pack but I think my pinion angle is still going to be off.

I'm gonna have to face facts, cowboy up and remove and re-weld my perches to get my angle straight .
This whole thing is a learning experience and there's no point in starting off w/my first real mod half-@ssed...

 

[fangotango306]

pics of the perches welded on may help us

 

[Baddecision93]

pics of the perches welded on may help us

I know...I'm going away for the weekend, I'll try to get some pics in before I leave.
My dad wants me to pull off the whole axle and bring it over to him so he can try to re-weld the perches for me, just matching the angle of the old ones.
I'll see how his re-welding affects correcting that angle.