Drivetrain slanted??

So I took my CJ5 project for a spin up the driveway for the first time last night, it was sweet . I just finished mounting the gas tank and the seats and couldn't resist a little spin. The new hydraulic clutch worked great. I noticed a few things, 1 - the shifter hits the dash when I put it into reverse. 2 - the headers, without the mufflers, are way to close to the floor, in fact I don't think there is enough room for the mufflers. 3 - the gas petal is too high off the floor. 4 - the fan blade is almost to close to the radiatord lower hose. All of these things combined makes me wonder if the transmission mount is to thick and casing everything to be tilted up a bit and making everything a bit wacky. I will get some pictures tonight. I thought I put it back the way it was originally. Anyone have any ideas on how and what to look for?

 

I usually put an angle finder on the carb mounting base on the manifold and shoot for 5 degrees tilt to the rear or less

I may have missed it but what transmission do you have? I know when I swapped to an sm420 I had to heat and bend the shifter rod back otherwise it hit the dash.

 

My transmission is a T-86. So I assume I need to start with a known frame angle and tilt down 5 deg past that on the motor/transmission?

 

Yep - that sounds right. If the floor is parallel to the frame (should be), measure that, then see how much the engine is tilted back from that.

 

Is it possible to drop the drop the trans cross member an inch or so to change the angle, lower the headers, and the shifter away from the dash? Just my $0.02.

 

Another thought I had..I recall some years using spacers under the crossmember to lower it as Rick suggested.is it possible yours were left out?

 

When lowering the rear of the engine to obtain the 4-1/2 to 5 deg angle (as designed) you must not forget to remove the transfer case torque mount. Once you have the cross-member properly spaced and bolted in then re-install the torque mount.

 

If you haven't I'd suggest checking the engine mounts. If the rubber has collapsed on them it could cause the issues you are experiencing...

 

Might try using hockey pucks as body mounts. You may just need the body to be a tad higher off the frame mounts.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions, that's the beauty of involving great minds. I have pictures. This first pictures is the block between the transmutation and the cross member. From what everyone has said I think this needs to be removed. Is that block not original? Does the original have rubber bushing between the cross bar and the transmission? The other pictures are the effects of the problem.

 

Thanks, I would have for sure forgotten to to that!! If I lower the tranny and T/C can that mount bolt flush to the cross bar or dies it need a rubber bushing between?

 

The engine mounts looked pretty good when I mounted the engine!!

 

Good suggestions I may need to rase the body a bit.

 

I wouldn't use hockey pucks. Get proper polyurethane donuts, if you're trying for a body lift. I had a buddy back in high school that did a hockey puck body lift on a '72 F150, and they ended up splitting, less than six months later, if memory serves, and he actually ended up having the cab come off the truck.

Your rig, so do what you like, but I wouldn't use them.

 

it looks like you already have some spacers in the cross member for the trans. is that how the stock configuration is for that t-case mount? what year is your rig?

 

you want to keep that rubber bushing there for the transfer case as it is bad to have a solid mount there.

 

why are you dropping your TC anyway? I think I may on my 66 with a V6 because it is mounted to the frame (metal to metal) with no bushing. Also I have a 2.5 in. lift kit on my jeep and I am afraid the driveshaft will fall out. But I do not know how much i can drop without changing all my angles.

 

I'm just wondering if I can drop the tranny and TC down about an inch, thus giving me more clearance on the 4 spots I highlighted above. What if I take out the 1 1/4 inch transmission mounting bracket and replace it with a 1/2 inch body mounting polyurethane donut? That should give me a little flex and about 3/4 inch more clearance on the header. I can also figure out the appropriate donut for the TC.

 

So I checked the level on the bottom of the frame right in the middle flat section, it was level, I then checked the level the best I could where the carburetor mounts to the manifold, it looks like they are both about level with each other.

 

Your rear mount looks right, FWIW both of my V6 Jeeps have about an inch worth of spacer bushings between the rear crossmember and the frame, hard to tell from your pics but it looks like it only has one spacer. Don't think the 4 cylinder models used any?--------I'm not paying much attention, check out the Spacer between the crossmember and frame thread. Spacer between the crossmember and frame | EarlyCJ5.com