Pinion angle and spring pad ?'s

Soon I will need to weld on the sping pads to finish my B-Body mini-tub. Currently the engine and trans is out of the vehicle. But the axle is in place and factory spring pads have already been cut off the axle (not by me). My question is I see 7* being thrown around a lot for the factory original placement of the spring pads. Example the pinion yoke is set at 0* and the pads at 7*, or pinion yoke at 7* and the pads at 0*. Is this the factory setting? Does this normally but not always work out to be 7* of nose down pinion angle? If I were to weld the spring pads in at 2*-4* for use with mono-leafs and Cal-tracs would this come close to 2*-4* nose down pinion angle?

Without the transmission in place I don't have any way to correcty positon the axle for setting the pinion angle. If I recall the transmission ouput shaft was around 1/2* but that was over 8 years ago. Does a 1/2* sound like the normal angle for a 727 output shaft on a basically unmodified 69 B-body chassis?

Stock B-body pinion to perch angle is 4 degrees up. In other words, the pinion points upward 4 degress when the perches are level.

You can't accurately set your pinion angle unless the engine/transmission is in the car. Did you alter the front or rear eye height when you moved the springs inward?

Hello Doctor Diff,

Thanks for the reply! The front and rear eye height was kept as close to the factory height as possible. Is it dead on? probably not but its close. I would assume your recommendation is to wait until the engine and transmission is back in the vehicle to correctly set the pinion angle otherwise adjustment shims may be needed, is this correct?