checking pinion angle

so after 2 years of learning and learning I come up with a new question. top sportsman nova 25.2 chassis. does anyone have any tips techniques to checking pinion angle with the car being so low to the ground? last time we checked it with a friend of mine we came up with 2.2 degrees of pinion angle. but here is how we did it. we put the car on projacks. front on the frame and the back projacks on the tabs on the rear end. seeing as with weight of the body is sitting on the axles (which seems to me to be the same as sitting on the tires). we checked it that way. is this wrong? i do have the aluminum between the tubs removable which i may be able to get to the pinion and driveshaft by crawling into the car that way. any suggestions are much appreciated.

 

as long as the weight of the car is on the shocks/springs the car thinks its on the ground

jack up the car and put it on jack stands, remove a wheel or both if you want. then place your floor jack or pro jacks under the rear end and jack it up until the weight of the car is on the jack. You will be lifting the rear end up and compressing the shocks until the car is off the jack stands and boom the car thinks its sitting on the ground at right height.

If you have the room in the wheel well , id recommend lowering the car as much as you can to get it close to actually ride height, while still giving yourself enough room to get in the wheel well to take the measurements. Doing this will remove a bit of the weight that would be placed on the front shocks and it would not only make the car more stable because it isn't on a big angle but it will make your math a little bit easier.

once that is all set take a angle finder and read the drive shaft angle, then place your angle finder on the flat part of the rear ends pinion when the drive shaft yoke gets bolted into. Minus the two numbers together and that's your pinion angle.
Its always wise to make sure your pinion yoke is level to the ground side to side just to help get an accurate reading of the two numbers.

 

Got it all taken care of I made the change from 2.4 to 1.5 degrees. I did it on the projacks then was able to check it again on the ground through the inside of the car with the aluminum removed. Thank you