How do you figure out the optimum pinion and carrier drop when you lift the rear of a truck? I'm looking at going to somewhere between 5-6" and would like to know how far to drop the carrier and what the optimum pinion angle is?

The truck is a CC LB 2004.

Is the 2 piece driveshaft supposed to be perfectly straight (i.e. drop the carrier until the front and rear halves are the same angle?

Does anyone have any good website references that I could read up on this?

Thanks

it is mostly a trial and error deal you just have to try some shims and see if there is any vibrations if there is either add or take away some shims

Well on my 2002 which I had a 12" Full Throttle Kit then switched to a 12" whiplash kit I had a carrier bearing drop of almost 5 inches to make that setup work, so I would think there would need to be 2 inch drop if even that. Try a 2" block setup and see where that gets you. If you still have vibration and issues then adjust up or down from there and see what happens. Usually a good 4WD shop can suggest what you might need to do, "IF" you need to do it at all...

Thanks guys.

Is the 2 piece drive shaft supposed to be straight with itself (i.e. front and rear pieces should be at the same angle?)

I've been wondering this as well...Procomp's shim pack tells you to use 1/4" shim per inch of lift in addition to their 3/4" aluminum block. I've also read simply a 1/4" of shim per inch of lift as the norm so I'm not really sure. I believe other lift manufacturers provide something like a 1-1/4" - 1-1/2" drop. I'm currently running about 1-3/4"-2" of drop on mine and my driveshafts don't line up. Its a trail and error thing and I think I still have some vibrations but I'm having a hard time figuring out what vibration is what between driveline, maybe unbalanced tires, and non-hubcentric rims...