Driveshaft horizontal angle

It looks like my driveshaft slightly veers off at the carrier bearing? Is this normal? I guess I just assumed it would be dead straight but maybe that’s the reason for the carrier bearing?

 

Did you start looking because of some other symptoms (noise, vibration, etc.)?

Can't say I've ever seen that, but totally possible I've missed it. If everything drives and feels fine, I wouldn't spend another minute thinking about it. But if you've got symptoms of driveline issues I'd dig further into that.

I'd jump under mine and take pics to compare, but I've got a torn quad muscle right now and better not. Maybe others can share pics of theirs. I'll dig around for old ones of mine to compare

 

I think the carrier bearing mount is slotted at the mounting tabs, best I remember.
You might be able to straighten it up some, loosen the bolts slide the bearing over and tighten it back up.

 

Carrier bearing is slotted as mentioned above so you can adjust it some but your pictures makes it look really off that I doubt you can get it completely straight. Worth a shot.

 

It has a rebuilt title from a passenger side collision so I’ve been worried about potential frame damage. It had a really bad vibration so I took the driveshaft in. It got a new flange and carrier bearing. That made a huge difference but it still isn’t totally vibration free. I suspect what’s left is the rear brake drums but haven’t touched them yet. At any rate I’m still just a bit concerned there is something off that I might be missing and noticed this so wanted to ask.

 

I just looked the part up. It's not slotted to move it Left/Right. Just Forward/Backwards.
It might still be worth a try, but what ever you do to one side (shaft), will do the opposite to the other.

 

By chance was the accident to the driver or passenger rear quarter panel?

 

Interesting. Mine is slotted to move a bit left and right but mine isn't OE. I had the issue that the OP is posting about and it fixed most of it by moving the CB

 

It was. Rear panel and partly at the bed. What do you know?

 

All the ones I see look like this.

 

Diff isn't perfectly centered on the axle neither is the drivetrain in the frame... I wouldn't think on it too much if you're not vibrating

 

OP, Take this guys word.
He knows more about these 1st Gen trucks than anyone else on this forum.

If he says, it is ok.
It's ok.

 

But it should be centered, right? And this is likely related to the collision? My concern is that if that is the case that this angle will destroy the flange once again and that the vibration will get worse over time. But idk.

 

I think we are looking at the same thing at a different perspective. The two bolts that hold up the CB has a smaller diameter than the flanges on the CB that allows some movement in each direction.

 

I don't know how your truck got hit so I can't say. But I can say that they come from the factory not perfectly centered in many different ways. Here's what mine looks like.

 

If the accident is bad enough, it could have shifted the mounting points of the rear axle causing the driveshaft to cant. If it drives fine then I would leave it. My truck has never been in an accident but it's also canted a bit...just not as bad as yours. No issues here.

 

Looks exactly how mine is as well.

 

That's fine, nothing on these trucks is perfectly straight

As soon as the rear end goes over some bumps the angles are changing up and down anyway

 

Great point.

 

holy crap
Your either an way experienced body man or insurance adjuster(tht me)

what a call.

so ztwatson,
Get under truck and look at all rear suspension mounts/schakles/leaf spring alignment
Check for ‘witness marks’ of a prior/past setting. Like moved because of a jolt. Maybe visable bending/sway to on side
Possible could be detected
Possible could be inexpensive to fix

pay a shop to just hang lasers at an alignment shop and show u rear measurements on a screen
?????

if you hear/feel vibrations….one thing
If you hear normal sounds……your good