So I recently bought the DJM 2/3 lowering kit and have now gained driveshaft vibration from 25 mph and at 45 mph I get a howling sound from the rear. My guess is my pinion angle is thrown off? Anybody ran into this problem?



2003 Ford Ranger XLT 3.0 Ext. Cab

 

yep i would agree bad pinion angle

 

How did you lower the rear? If you flipped the axle, did you remove the driveshaft?

 

I did flip the axle and no I didn’t not remove the driveshaft.

 

Gotcha, definitely sounds like your pinion angle is off. Did the axle brackets seat properly? Did you put them in with the centering hole towards the front of the truck? Did you undo the shocks before flipping the springs?

 

Axle brackets definitely required a little bit of filing down, the whole was uneven and yes I did put the offset hole towards the front. I also did undo the shocks before flipping springs.

 

Okay, just trying to rule things out that may affect the pinion angle. Seems like you did everything properly, did you install the kit with the replacement shackles?

 

yes sir, replaced what ever was included in the kit for rear end. Sorry for the late response, didn’t get notified.

 

If you do indeed have the shackles, there are two holes to bolt the spring eye in, try moving them to the other hole. That may correct your pinion angle enough to not require any sort of shim above the spring.

 

Yes the longer shackles are installed and if I’m not mistaken, the upper hole is 4 inch drop rather than 3. But I’ll try that out

 

Longer shackles will push down on the rear of the springs, which alters the pinion angle and causes a few different issues. I hate them for this reason. Moving them to the top hole will bring your pinion angle a little closer to stock, which may help with your issues. Let us know the result.

 

Oh wow I was not aware of that. So I assume there isn’t any other way to achieve the lowering aspect besides getting longer shackles? I’m new to this lowering by the way!

 

The flip kit is really the only other option for these trucks, I've seen people do some wacky things like run mono-leafs from Explorers, but I don't think that really gains much in your scenario.

One other thing I've seen done is a shackle hanger flip, where basically you flip the shackle hanger upside down so that the shackle points upward rather than down, but that may slam the truck when combined with the axle flip and I don't know the specifics on that flip as I've never personally done it.

 

Interesting, I know explorers are interchangeable more or less but I guess you would have some sort of clearance issues perhaps? But in case it doesn’t work, the shim would have to sit between the axle locator bracket and the spring pack correct?

 

Exactly. There's different degrees of shim, so without measuring your pinion angle and doing the math to find your optimal pinion angle, it will be a guessing game to figure out which one you need.

 

Right, well I’ll keep you updated and see if it did work out or not. Appreciate the replies man ! 👍🏼

 

UPDATE* so I finally moved the leaf springs to the upper hole. I got to say it did help tremendously with vibration.

 

Thanks for the update! That is precisely why I don't like extended shackles.

 

I appreciate your advice good sir, have a good one. Ranger danger out !