Lifted 1982 Chevy front driveshaft/pinion angle problems???

ok im new to this forum thing but i have a serious issue with this 82 chevy silverado, first thing is that im not sure how much lift it has but a buddy said it looked like a 4 or 6 all suspension, next thing it has a 208 tcase and when i brought it home and put it on the lift to further inspect what i had, i found that the front driveshaft constant velocity joint stuff was cut out and filled full of sylicone, in shock    i decided to take it to my local driveshaft company and have it fixed, once the guy looked at it he said he will fix it but he didnt think it would work but said to just make sure that it drops down past the pinion and to make sure it doesnt bind up in that position so that when i bolt it up it wont rebreak. Once i put the driveshaft up to the tcase it was angled out right at the pinion so now im lost other than leaf spring shims to readjust the pinion agle but was curious if there is something els that could cause this as the idiots who built the truck were deff not good mechanics.  

The good news is you have a couple options. The bad news is you probably won't like any of them. They can be costly.
Option one: lower the suspension. It sounds like you may have six or more inches of lift. Taking it down to four will give you better driveline angles.
Option two: leave it at the current height and upgrade the driveshaft to a high-angle 1350 CV-style driveshaft and yokes from Tom Wood's Custom Driveshafts.
Option three: Replace the CV-style driveshaft and upper yoke only with a  standard yoke and grind it out for clearance. You will find this easier if you also upgrade to a 1330 or 1410 sized U-joint. Your truck likely has 1310s on it now.

You will likely not be able to use shims since this will alter your steering caster negatively. But you may be able to milk a few degrees out of it depending on the suspension. You should have at least 4-6 degrees of positive caster.  
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John Cappa
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Four Wheeler
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ahh I dont like the sound of either, I deff dont like the price of a custom driveshaft so I think what ill do is bolt the driveshaft to the tcase and let it hang down by the pinion and add shims (not sure which size) but enough to leave me with about 4 degrees of caster of the 6 i have right now and then jack the frame up till the driveshaft meets the pinion and then put a chain from the frame to the u bolts on both sides and put the chain in a bicycle tire tube so you dont see the chain so that way when and if i ever drop it off in a bad spot it wont allow the driveshaft to bind up but i see alot of trucks where i live running 1/2 trucks with 8 inch suspencion lifts and they dont have a special driveshaft and it stumpes me as to what the hell there doin so maybe ill just stop one of them and get some more info but even then one of my buddies said he doesnt understand why mine is causeing me trouble, it is a 1/2 body with 3/4 ton axles but i didnt think that would matter..  

Yeah, it's really hard to say what is going on without seeing your suspension setup in person. Got pics?  
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John Cappa
Editor
Four Wheeler
john.cappa@fourwheeler.com
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Full of silicone? Huh?

FYI, most NP208s used Saginaw-style CVs, not Spicer-style. The Saginaw caps are held in place with a liquid nylon that is injected and hardens. Maybe you're mistaking this for silicone?

Generally speaking, most Saginaw CVs offer pretty impressive angularity. Is the binding at the axle yoke or in the CV at the T-case side?

A little grinding work with a die grinder on the yokes or inside the CV will let you eke out some more downtravel before things bind up. That, coupled with increasing the pinion angle via steel shims (your plan of 4-degrees caster should work okay for you) should get you some decent flex.

I ran an NP208 in a Ramcharger with a 6-inch lift and an NP435 manual tranny. That's a pretty short front driveshaft. I kept the Saginaw-style CV at the T-case end, but stepped up to a 1330 at the front axle. I used a yoke from Tom Wood's Custom Drive Shafts, but I think you should be able to source a Dana 44 1330 yoke from a lot of other places. If you keep the CV-side of your driveshaft and just have the slip-tube portion swapped out to accept a 1330 U-joint it should minimize the high cost of a custom front driveshaft.  
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