Drive shaft angles / Cast help

Have a few questions regarding my caster and drive shaft angles.
The XJ is going to be trailer only and used offroad only can i get away with 14 degrees caster on a dana 44?


Also how does my angles look on the following? Bare with me this is my 1st 3 link build.


Front drive shaft.. Can I get a double cardan joint that can do 30 degrees?

Here is my Pinion Angle


double Cardan joint / drive shaft / general pics etc any suggestions please let me know. If I can get away without cutting my axles and spinning the knuckles it would be awesome :S

FYI that is not 14* caster. Caster is measured at the knuckle not the face of the diff. If that is a stock GM CV it wont live with much angle at all.

thought you could measure caster off the flat machined surface of the diff? yeah drive shafts are going to be all brand new when i get to them. Need to be all re-sized and what not.. just in there for mock up

Pinion angle and caster angles are two different things. Draw an imaginary line vertically through the upper and lower ball joints, than is your caster.

Yeah the factory setup has the caster angle off-set from the pinion by a few degrees, so you have to measure the pinion angle then do some math to find the caster. Pre-2000 the factory caster offset was 9 degrees, and then when they switched to low-pinion D30 the stock caster offset 12 degrees. I don't know where you're at with that setup. You need to find a way to measure the angle of the outer C. For future reference, also determine the difference against the pinion so that you can use the pinion+difference for reference.

The axle is a Dana 44 from a 76 k10? Silverado.. My pinion angle is at 14* does anyone know what my caster would be in ref to this angle?

... just measure it by putting the angle finder on top of the balljoint...

also might just be me, but things are going to change a bit when you lower that down to ride height.

This is at ride height, the complete weight is on the coils jacks are only there to stablize while i mock everything up.. If this truck is going to be for offroad use only esp no highway will it be ok to set my caster lower? To avoid cutting and welding my knuckles, or is it worth it to strip the axle down remove knuckes and weld them at 6* caster with the correct pinion angle. Sorry for the stupid questions but i would like to know from someone with personal experience.. I need around 14* pinion angle so my caster is prob around 0*?

Googling around I found a link that says K10 has 4-6 degrees of positive caster, so diff straight up the balljoints should be tilted forward about 5 degrees. I have no idea if that's right or not. Hopefully you're not too lazy to check yours out, cause you'll surely be too lazy to replace ball joints and u-joints when they blow out.

You want the pinion on the same plane as the front driveshaft if possible so that the u-joint has the optimal rotation, otherwise you'll get vibes and blow out the u-joints in your driveshaft faster. When you rotate that far it also moves the caster forward which will affect steering and handling (steering won't return to center as quickly, etc), and can damage your balljoints. On my XJ with about 4 inches of lift I ended up splitting the difference which eliminated the vibes and kept handling from getting too squirrely. Experiment with it.