Dose any one with higher hp have a problem with the stock hanger bearing in the drive shaft. I am on my third one now it is always bending the cadge around the hanger to the fuel tank. Sled pullen might have some thing to do with it . Is there an aftermarket one that is stronger to hold up to the higher hp and sled pullen?

 

Funny you should say that.

I pulled my longbed 4 door on Friday and it has the same thing going on with the carrier bearing.

 

I am wondering if a one piece shaft is the way to go? the new trucks have one piece shafts. I have to do some more reaserch on if one from a new truck will fit?

 

I'm sure it will fit.My fathers '08 Mega has a 1 piece aluminum shaft which has the same frame as us.

Just not sure on the slip yoke on the 68re.Which could be easily fixed.

 

well I have to do some thing different, like put a brace on the hanger or some thing cuz that hager bearing moves so much that the sheild around the fuel tank is dented and chewed up from the drive shaft hitting it. It would be neet to mount a camera under there and see what is happening when sled pullen, because the tank is a good three inches away or so from the hanger. I just put a second one in this year and they are $130 a pop from the dealer. One piece shaft is looken atractive!

 

On my reg cab the drive shaft has no carrier bearing. Just the slip yoke spline and two u-joints. Today I replaced the two u-joints with precision 330 grease-able for $50.36 . Stock ones looked like spicer non-grease-able, which I found interesting. You can tell by the dished center section on the spicer make joints. Might want to try putting a angle finder on your joints and seeing if they match. Some guys have found that a 5/16 shim on the carrier bearing solves the angle problem. But a soon as the sled weight shifts no u-joint is going to hold up I think.

 

My U-joints are not breaking The hanger is just flexing that far in to the fuel tank. I have all spicer joints, knock on wood they have not busted. I also have 2" of shim under the bearing cuz of the 4" lift. The 2 piece shaft seems to be inline from dif to T-case.

 

Just my opinion on it but with 35's and 4" of lift your drive line angle is too extreme to begin with. When the sled squats the truck the u-joints only have so much angular movement and they bind at 3 and 9 o'clock. This would cause the load to be tranfered to the carrier bearing. Time to beef up the carrier bearing support, make sense? What about air bags on the rear axle to maintain the drive shaft angle. Whow, do you really have a two inch shim under the bearing?

 

I have made bump stops for the back so the sled dose not squat the truck at all. Looks like I have to fab up some bracing for the hanger.

 

I've never heard of someone having this problem from drag racing. Launching with 20+psi in 4wd on pavement has to put just as much or more stress on the carrier bearing. Maybe the problem is due to frame flex/twist?

The newer LWB trucks come with a 1-piece driveshaft, but they also have a different automatic tranny that might be longer or shorter. Dodge might of also changed the pinion angle on the newer trucks with 1-piece shafts, so just bolting up a newer shaft might not help without adjusting the pinion angle.

 

First, 2" carrier bearing shim is way too much for a 4" lift!
.... 1" is plenty.

Second - no traction bars?
As the pinion angle changes under torque, the leaf packs wind up/unwind as the 2-piece driveshaft telescopes to accomodate the length change... which can allow the lateral motion required for the carrier bearing to flex/break out of position and contact the fuel tank.

 

I think I got the shiming info off Lazar Smiths site for the shim under hangar bearing. I beleave it was 1" of shim for every 2" of lift. I always had 1" of shim in there and when I just changed the bearing and added 2" of shim. I might go back to 1" there is a small amount of shudder right now. I do not have traction bars yet, they are in the works. I launch In 4wd at 30psi of boost when hooked to the sled, so there is plenty of stress and twisting going on and that must be the week spot. I also have 33" tires for sled pullen, little smaller that the every day driving tires.

 

The traction bars page on the LazarSmith website says: "Order 1 shim for every 2" of rear suspension lift"

... shims are stated to be 1/2" thick.

 

Mine is shimmed around 5/8" for 1 1/2" lift.I have no driveline vibration since I shimmed it.

Do you really launch at 30 psi when hooked to the sled?Thats pretty extreme!

 

Yea I try to get it to about 30 psi cuz I pull in 4th. I have tried 20lbs, 25lbs, but 30 seems the best with launch and for best distance down the track. It has been treating me pretty good. First time I tried a 30lb launch I took 1st in the mod class. That was awsome for me scince I am low on hp compaird with who I was against.

I will make some adjustments on shim on the hager bearing back to an inch or so.

If you run a string line from Rear Diff to T-case should the driveshafts be inline with string? Or at the point of hanger bearing should be higher? It is inline now with like 1 7/8" shim in there..