so I put a 4" lift on my 82-k10

[enigma2y0u]

As I said, I put the lift on. Well it seems that when I am accelerating from a stop I get a shke in my shift stick. Also it is slightly present in the whole truck. I have a short box by the way. Anyways, when I put the lift on me and my buddy pulled out the driveline a few inches past where it was going to mount up to check for length problems and that seemed fine. I don't know if this is a common problem or not. I am not a mechanic, but could I need a new set of U-joints? That is the only thing I can think of. It just seems like the truck is running rough, before when I used to stomp on the gas from a light it would get up and have a nice smooth fast acceleration. I still get the fast acceleration, but the smooth is gone.

Also I noticed a performance difference in my engine. Like there was a drop in torque in the rear wheels. This makes sense to me do to the physics of the different angles, but do any of you notice anything like that?

[GMC71k20]

did you put bigger tires on? that would kill some torque

[Mike C]

Most likely your lift kit rotated your axle housing in order to reduce angle on rear u-joint. The unfortunate fact is that this gets it out of sync with the front u-joint, so you have a slight out of phase problem with your u-joints in the rear shaft. The front driveshaft has a CV joint and is less susceptible to this problem. My solution on my Jimmy was to run a rear driveshaft with CV as well. Another option is to lower the transfercase mount so that angles are closer to equal on each end of the rear driveshaft. Some 4" kits come with spacers and longer bolts to do this.

CV shaft wants the driveshaft to be exactly in line with the pinion on the rear, so rotating the nose of the axle up is the right thing to do. Then do the CV on the trans end. I am really pleased with mine, it cost about $75 more than a non-CV shaft, but I have not had to replace a u-joint since getting the shaft (so to speak...) My OEM driveshaft was completely worn out (300k miles) and bent from being chucked out too many times with broken rear joints. That did not help contribute to u-joint longevity.

[Mudder]

Of my transfer case and it being lowerd 2 inches using all the stuff that came on the truck. Your TC should have some small spacers on the bolts for the crossmember.

[CHEVY_FOREVER]

Lets see some pics..... I am thinking of putting a 4" lift on my 82 as well!

[enigma2y0u]

I will next week. My digital camera is in another town. check back.

[Tobes85K5]

Mike C, that is some great info. Enigma, is your lift all leafs or do you have blocks in the back? I may be giving myself up here a little, but when I put my 2 1/2 in. lift on my 85 K5, I felt some shimmy as well. I really didn't know what caused it, because there should not have been any bad angle problems with the shaft on that small of a lift. One day, I was under there and looked at the blocks and....I put them in backwards. There is a slight angle to the blocks and I had put mine in the wrong way. I have since corrected it, but I am not sure if I did any permanent damage to the shaft or U-joints. I am not saying you did this, but crazy stuff sometimes happens. I think a lack of sleep and too many beers caught up with my friends and me that night.