Buick V6 swap question

I hear ya on that... haha. Why the switch to saginaw? I know people say that the stock arm may hit the bell or trany, but does it cut down on turning radius that much?

 

For sure, all of my dads and my jeep builds have saginaw... i am limited on time for now and am just wanting to get the motor in and going... then later in summer do a saginaw with a gm column i have in the garage.

 

Well, it has been a while, but here is my completed project. Got it done back in September. For now has Ross steering still. But using advance adapters motor mounts, and i already had a t-90 adapted and ready to go, is sure is nice with the extra power!

 

And i made this a public album, so everyone can see it now. It is basically the whole project.... I welded and bolted the motor mounts. This was my first solo conversion (done plenty of stock restorations), so it may not all be pretty, but it was fun and i learned a lot!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=165923&id=583048478&saved

 

I couldn't log in for the pics.
Nice looking Jeep.
Both my V6 Jeeps are still runing Ross steering, niether has clearence problems with steering.
Saginaw parts are sitting in the shed, waiting...

 

I have all the parts for power steering in a crate... at some point it will go on. i have no issues at all with my ross! Getting big arms!

 

When I did my Buick v6 swap (My CJ5, not a flatty), I kept the transfercase mounted in the same location as stock. This ended up putting my engine offset to the driver side, not the passenger side just like it was with the F-head. This also keeps my shifters all in the stock location so that they line up in the floorboards like normal.

My stock ross steering clears the engine just fine. I moved the pitman arm one tooth over to gain more clearance to the bellhousing, and in turn I heated and bent the drag link to effectivly 'shorten' it so the steering all ended up back like stock. My wheels will turn lock to lock in both directions, it all behaves like it did with the original f-head in there.



Here you can see my homemade motor mounts, shorter on the driver side, and also the drag link is bent in two spots to align the steering back to how it should be:

 

ok, so you people that offset to the right, what do you do with the speedo cable and do you add another fill plug for the D18? I went with the left offset (as stock) and the speedo cable still has a lot sharper bend than is desirable with the boxed frame. Another 3" right and there would be no way to get the plug out, not to mention the starter/driveshaft thing. Actually, there is only about 2.75 inches between the D18 and the box plate-just flat will not work on mine.

 

Not gonna get three inches either way. It usually comes down to a 1/2" either way. I just try to clear the steering shaft, power steering pump pulley, front driveline, starter, clutch linkage and little things like shifters, speedo cable and bellcrank clearance. Just one big jig-saw puzzle, but that is the fun part. If it could just be bolted up with a kit then anyone could do it. Depending on the transmission, you can just fill the transfer case usung the level of the trans.