need help with drive line

[losthope]

Heres a picture of how your original setup should look like(dont mind the drivline angle thats air bags deflated and ive since corrected the extreme angle) just look at the center carrier bearing:


Ive also have read that the type with the bottom mounted carrier bearing like you have installed is a bigger driveline(1.3780",1.5748") then the style that hangs from the top(1.1811"), so if you were to switch to the right one for your year truck you would have to swap in a whole driveline and not just the different style bearing!
I agree with captain fab on that the bearings that hang from the top are crap, ive had three come apart(just pinch welded together) and finally had a buddy put a nice thick weld around the last one to make it work, they do sell a billet one that cost $100 but ive never used it, I would just keep the setup you have since it is a larger size drivline and a all around better bearing setup and would just have it remade longer.

you should be measuring with all the weight of the truck resting on the wheels, so if you can crawl under the truck and measure with out jacking the truck up that would be ideal, but if you have to jack the truck up make sure you have the jack stands placed under the axle and not on the frame allowing the axle to hang.

I believe you should only need to have the first piece of drive shaft coming off the trans remade not the whole thing, but i would double, triple check everything!
heres a link to measuring a two piece driveshaft:
http://www.actionmachineinc.com/mult...haftguide.aspx

and you might be able to bring the center carrier bearing down a bit if you remade the bracket its bolted to shorter, but you can probable get away with were its at now...and your cross member looks just like mine so i dont think its bent...

[losthope]

when i said bigger driveline in the other post i meant the shaft part that goes through the bearing, I dont know if the overall drivline is bigger or not.

also looking at your pictures again its hard to see if you not have a transmission mount in the back? if not i would get one and put it in it will help with the tailshaft being at so much of a angle,and id put it in before i had the driveshaft remade.

heres a idea if you wanted to lower the center bearing(if putting a trans mount in doesnt help the angle) is to bolt a piece of flat stock and bolt the bearing to it,might not have to go as low as i drew the line, you could use the stock photo of my driveline for reference to where the bearing is in relation to trailing arm bolts..... i drew a red line representing the piece of flat stock: