Ok, I have my 2.8 But now I can't find a T-5 out of a camaro.I can find all kinds of them for a S-10, But The problem of the shifter being too close to the dash...
Is there any way to make this work? I don't have a problem with doing a bit of cutting but I'd rather not have to do a lot of it.
Also, It seems the more I read, the more things keep popping up (as far as problems) like the water pump running in reverse,Making pulleys, gearing, It seems to go on and on.`
I really am committed to doing this, but I'm getting very confused with all I`m reading.
Is there just a good " step by step " I can go by that will explain what I can expect to run into and how to deal with it?
Bill Young has been a great help and I would like to thank him for his help so far.
I`m still getting on to this whole "forum thing" so If I`m going about anything the wrong way I apologize.
Mike, Try this website for auto recyclers.
http://car-part.com/
I just queried on a 1987 Camaro w/2.8 manual xsmn for Iowa and 4 locations popped up.
Mike, if you have a 2.8 out of a RWD car or truck the water pump can be changed to the early style rotation just by getting one from a Camaro or S10 prior to the serpentine belt. (82-86) That said, I had a serpentine setup on my 87 Camaro engine and am now running a single V belt and it's the same pump and I don't have any cooling issues, might not be an issue on that configuration engine. I did have to fabricate a lower crank pulley for the v belt drive as I couldn't find any GM unit that would fit in my application, I think I used a pulley off of a later T bird to make mine and drilled to to fit the Chevy balancer. That lined up with the standard V belt GM water pump pulley on one groove and I made the alternator bracket to match that alignment.
As far as the trans goes, that's a tough one. I hear that you can install the Camaro type tail housing and shifter on the S10 front case, but that still would mean you'd have to find a Camaro box or at least part of one. There was a post on another thread last week with a photo of a remote shifter someone fabricated that might also solve your problem as to shifter location. I'd still think the best thing would be to hold out a bit and keep looking for a V6 Camaro box, They are out there still. Keep checking craigs list (is that your want ad on the Dubuque list? ) and make friends with your local salvage yard owners to keep their eyes open.
I'm not aware of any "step by step" for this conversion as there have only been three or four done that I know of and all of them were slightly different in their placement of the engine and motor mounts etc. so it's almost like each of us has to figure it out on our own. At least for you there is this forum and others, those weren't around 13 years ago when I started my conversion and I am glad to help where I can. I figure the other guys with V6 Spridgets would answer questions as well, have you tried contacting anyone else with a V6 conversion? I think I'm the only one on this forum with a 60 degree Midget conversion, but I have exchanged e-mails with a couple of others over the years and could probably make contact again if you need anything that they might be able to help with.
You're getting the hang of the forum just fine. This new topic is just what you need so that your questions don't get overlooked.
Bill
Bill you said that you removed the center of your steering rack mount. Did you just cut it, or did you weld in a plate or bracket for strength?
I'm kind of at a stand still until I get a transmission. Not much I can do til I see where everything is going to sit.
I did notice that you had the two uprights off you car. (the posts that are welded on to the front frame rails that the front end bolts onto). How does that work? Do you have your front end welded together and hinged? That would be something I would really like to do as well.
Still searching for a transmission. I do have a lead or two. I plan on going to a swap meet in Elkhorn, Wisconsin next week, so maybe I'll find what I need there. Any thing else I should keep an eye out for?
Have a good weekend.
-Mike-
Just thought I would put on a picture of my project
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Mike, I cut the crossmember and welded a cover piece on the ends and tied that down into the main crossmember. Looking back I probably should have made the reinforcement a bit stronger similar to what the factory did on the 1500 powered cars. It shows up fairly well in this photo.
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What about the Posts that the front end bolts onto?I noticed that yours were gone.How does that work?
Oh yeah, I forgot about that little mod. I had to remove those for clearance, now the front is supported by the lower panel between the radiator and the grill, four 1/4" bolts directly into the top of the chassis extensions. I made up a support frame for the radiator and fan assembly which mounts to the three bolt holes on each side of the radiator support which use to bolt to the frame uprights. I suppose that I probably didn't need to remove the uprights, but it does make pulling the engine and trans much easier as you don't have to lift the engine as high or at such a steep angle. As for the steering crossmember I suggest if you have to cut it as I did you weld in a reinforcement of similar size tubing that angles down to the main crossmember similar to the way the factory did on the 1500 Midgets. Sort of like this:
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Thanks much again Bill.I cut the crossmember today. I did cut some 1 1/2 angel at 3 3/4 inches long. I thought that I could weld that in but I think I like your idea better.Glad I waited!
Jim Nichols has a thread (2nd page 3rd from bottom) on Alternate sources for Bell housings.
He talks about Toyota transmissions for the GM V-6 from an early supra.
He also talks about Jeep and Dakota Bell housings,A wealth of informative information
without a doubt.BUT... Its a bit over my head I just want to know if there are any transmissions that will bolt up to my Gm 2.8 and slide into my midget.
I have a few leads on a T-5 But I would like to find the trans,bell housing,Flywheel,and everything in one deal.
I did find a guy who has a carb. and intake off a early celebrity.That should work to convert the motor over from the T.B.
Do I need to do anything with the electronics? mainly the coil .The stock one is a square transformer looking thing.
Sorry for all the lame questions but I would rather ask once and do it right than not ask and have to redo things.
Mike, no problem with the questions, that's the reason the forum is here. No one wants to see you work any harder than you have to to build your car. I can't answer about the transmissions as I've only had experience fitting the Camaro T5. About the only way you're going to be sure if a transmission will fit in the tunnel area without major work is to find one and take a lot of measurements. I suspect that most of the transmissions from pickups such as the S10, Jeep, and Dakota will have shifter locations that are a bit too far forward for comfort, but some measurment will determine if they can be used. You start getting into an area where there may be a lot of possible options or very few, we just don't know what will fit certain bell housings and what won't. I remember seeing a post somewhere about a possible fit of a Toyota box onto a Dakota bell housing if I remember correctly, just too many variables at this point to be sure. If you could find such a fit, then perhaps a passenger car version of that transmission say from a Supra would have a shifter location that was better than the truck version and work out ok. Still you need to check the width of the main box. The T5 is really close. I had to increse the width of the tunnel maybe 1/2" to 3/4" when I formed the upper section from new sheet metal and trim off all the unnecessary tabs and protrusions from the T5 case to fit it in my car and then it's close. I had to mount it "straight up" instead of at the normal 17 degree slant as it's in the Camaro as well, which was easy using the early Camaro bell housing, but might be a problem with a later bell housing, something else to check.
Use the coil that came with the igniton that you wind up using in the end. The transformer type coil works fine with the later computer type electronic ignition used with fuel injection, the earlier cars used a different type of ignition system with either a coil built into the distributor cap or a more conventional round coil as I remember. Just match them up and you should be fine.
Feel free to send me a PM if you have any questions that you have, I'll be glad to answer as I can, either here on the forum or by PM.
Yes I was thinking of the tunnel the other day.Thought I would just cut most of it out and make a new one up somehow after I get everything in place.I guess the only thing would be how to shape it right.
I`m finding that having the bottom of the tunnel enclosed is a bit of a pain.But it seems to be needed for the overall strength of the car.
I think I will just stick to finding a T-5.Makes things a bit simpler for me.
Mike, as far as the tunnel mods go, no matter what trans you use they will probably be pretty similar to what I had to do for the T5. This photo shows the tunnel top portion from about 2" above the floor up to the top completely removed and the front edge at the firewall raised about 1.5" then a new tunnel section was formed from 20 gauge sheet metal, actually a couple of pieces to get the shape closer to that of the trans. I formed the pieces just by bending over my leg and using a pipe support in my basement to get some of the curved shape. I cut the original shifter opening out of the old tunnel and relocated it to fit the T5 shifter and then filled in the remaining area with smaller pieces of sheet metal bent to fit. To make access to the transmission yoke and u-joint easier I made an access hole in the top of the drive shaft tunnel and fabricated a sheet metal cover that is attached with sheet metal screws about every inch or so. The vertical tab you see on the top of the tunnel just in front of the shifter is just something I added to attach my home built radio consle to and isn't needed for the conversion.
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Bill would you mind going a bit more in depth on your clutch linkage situation and how you delt with it?
Is there anything special I should be trying to find as far as Linkage ect.?
My solution for the clutch was based on the use of an early Camaro bell housing and would't apply to either as S10 or later Camaro housing. Because the early Camaro housing had "ears" for a starter on each side I was able to shorten the clutch fork and mount a slave cylinder inline with the ear on the driver's side. I made up a plate from 3/16" steel stock which replaced the original sheet metal dust cover for the lower portion of the bell housing and mounted the aluminum mounting bracked for a 1500 Midget slave cylinder to that. I made up my own pushrod which was cut to length so that there was a tiny amount of play when the clutch was fully released just to make sure the throwout bearing didn't ride against the pressure plate. Clutch effort is increased a bit, but still fairly comfortable. Some other clutch solutions for the V6 with a T5 are currently being discussed on the MG Experience board, might be worth your time to take a look at what others's have done as well. http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?40,1184919 or http://www.mgexperience.net/phorum/read.php?40,1182870
The photo is of my clutch slave mounting bracket installed on the engine, the slave cylinder has been removed from the bracket as I didn't want to break the hydraulic connection when I pulled the engine.
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Whats the story with the carb./throttle body thing on the 2.8?
I thought What I had was a T.B So I took it off ( messed up some linkage in doing so).
Then I find it was a carb.I still don`t know if it would need a computer to run or not. I just want to switch it over to something I understand. (if that`s possible)
I know edlebrock makes a # 3785 and a 3787 intake but don`t what one would work best.
Would there be a used one that would interchange?
Again the motor is from a 85 S-10 .
Did at last find a tranny,bell housing,clutch,and flywheel.All from a camaro. to bolt onto it.I will have to drive two hrs.to get to it but the guy assures me he has what I need.He owns a transmission shop so I guess I can trust that it will be good to go.He wants 200 bucks for everything.That seems like a heck of a deal to me!
As always thanks much I`d be lost without all the good advice and help.
Mike, I'm not sure about the early S10 carb/TB, I think there were some of each produced. The carb would probably have some type of electronic controls as well, a lot of carbs from this period did. The best bet if you want to run a carb is to swap it out for a Holley. The best manifold is probably to use the Edelbrock base manifold along with the carb adaptor from Bill Guzman at Classic Conversion Engineering. http://www.classicconversionseng.com/
That's about the lowest in over all height as a combination which would save on a lot of hood modifications.
That deal on the transmission sounds like a good one even with the drive. You may run into some issues with clearance with the Camaro bell housing and the S10 flywheel and clutch assembly though. Check with guys like Bill G and Brian McCollough about those, they're the experts in that area.
The clutch,bell housing and flywheel are all out of a camaro That`s what I want Right?
That's the set up I used and it does fit. There are a ton of combinations that will work, it's difficult to keep track of them all as you know. I was lucky and just bought a complete car so I knew that everything would work together. It's a little more worrysome when you get bits from here and there. The only thing I can think of that might be a potential problem is engine balance, I thought some of the early motors were externally balanced so the flywheel needed to be for that combination. I can't remember right now what the details were, read about it in the book Chevy Power I believe. You might find the information on this Wiki page interesting, especially about the use of carburators and when the throttle bodies were introduced. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_60-Degree_V6_engine No mention of the balancing, but I think it changed when they went to the larger crank journals in 85.
Now I`m worried.I guess I just thought that any 2.8 would bolt up to any T-5 as long as you had the right clutch and bell housing.
Boy I wonder if there`s a difference from a automatic to manual (as far as the pilot shaft)?
I`d sure like to know if all this is going to go together before I drive all that way (and spend $200.00).
I know he said he has the same setup as you have for the bell housing,clutch and flywheel.I just don`t know If the LR2 (B-code) S-10 motor and the LB8 (S-code motor) from a camaro will have the same tranny interchanges???
Know anyone who can help?
Go ahead and give Brian McCollough a call, I think he'll be able to tell you if this all will hook up correctly. That price on a T5 with everything is almost too good to pass up and the only thing that might be in question is the flywheel which can be rebalanced if necessary so I'd still go for it. I forgot what year your engine was, but I think it would work fine with the Camaro flywheel, but check with Brian to make sure, it's his business to know that sort of stuff.
The early Camaro bell housing isn't really necessary for a MGB swap, but for a Midget where the transmission has to be mounted straight up and down to clear the tunnel the best it's the only way to go because the mounting holes are already cast in just need to be drilled and tapped and the tranny can be "clocked" straight up. This photo shows the three types of housings and why the early Camaro unit is the best for a Midget conversion.
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Thanks again Bill.I hoping to get that "tranny package" in the next day or two.The guys really hard to get a hold of.
I`ll keep you posted on my progress.
Hi Mike,
Hope your not saying I am hard to get in touch with. I am hyperactive about checking emails and keep one eye on the telephone when I am in the shop. Sometimes its strapped to my hip! :-)
I check the boards often as well but don't always post. We offer just about all a person could use for the B conversions and most of it crosses over to the other types of conversions as well.
-BMC.
Brian, I'm sure he's refering to the guy who has the T5 package not you. I hope you don't mind me refering people to you on some of these V6 questions, I certainly don't have all the answers as to what interchanges and what doesn't.
Brian I was referring to the guy I`m getting the tranny from.
I don`t think we have talked yet.
Do you "deal" with the midget much?
Bill ,You brushed on how you made your motor mounts on you page .
Would you mind going into that a bit more?
When I made the motor mounts for the engine I decided to make a mount that would bolt onto the chassis in the same location the original mounts did. I first cut two plates for the block sides from 1/4" steel stock, drilled them to the correct pattern and then bolted them on. Next I selected a rubber motor mount that was both reasonably compact and easily available at the local auto parts store should I ever have to replace one, in my case I chose the mount from a Chevy pickup from the late 60s or early 70s. I positioned that mount in line with the block plates and cut another 1/4" plate that would bolt on to the original mounting bolts and then the Chevy mount would bolt to that. Then I made top plates for the mounts and finally used steel tubing to bridge the gap between the top plates on the mounts and the block plates, just tacking those in place with the MIG then removing the mounts totally for final welding. The black and white photo is of the chassis adaptor plate with the Chevy mount in place and the color shot shows a portion of the steel tube bridging between the block and the motor mount.
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Ok, I think I got that. Thank you. I would really like to start working on getting the motor in but as of now I still haven`t got my tranny so I`m kind of at a stand still with that.
I did "beef up " the trunk floor behind the gas tank With a piece of 1/4" x 6'' x 41'' long plate steel. I then took the rear leaf spring mounts off and cut a 4'' wide piece to strengthen everything up there as well (7"long).
The idea of the long strip is to protect the gas tank in case of a rear end collision and just to firm things up a bit and maybe help traction.
I did find that my lower door hinge post is rotted out so I guess I`ll have to do some thinking on how to get to that taken care of.
Mike, there's a pretty good photo section on the repair of a midget lower door post area on the Eclectic Motorworks web site. http://www.eclecticmotorworks.com/bmidget02.html and http://www.eclecticmotorworks.com/bmidget03.html It doesn't show the actual hinge area replaced, but at least you can get an idea of how to open the panels to gain access then weld in the repair section for the hinge and finish up with the outer skin as they did. It's not a difficult repair but I'd suggest building a jig if possible to locate the hinge so when you cut away the old area you can accurately position the new metal before welding.
Bill, Do you think I can make up motor mounts and get the motor "fitted" in the car without the tranny and bell housing?I just would like to get something done while I have the time.(though I don`t have the trans and bell housing yet)
Also how long are 1/4" the plates you made that are bolted on the car?
Mike, I really don't think you could do the front mounts without the transmission in place. The angle that the engine sets at is so important and without the trans in place you would have a hard time determining the height in the rear so getting the front height right would be almost impossible. I'm afraid you really should wait until you have the entire package together before making mounts. The length of the front mount plates would really depend on exactly where you finally set the engine for crank pully clearance and what type of rubber mount you use.
I'm not sure how much experience you have with engine swaps, but the drive line angles are so important because you need to make sure the installed angle of the engine and transmission match the angle of the pinion flange on the rear axle in order for the drive shaft to be properly "phased" and prevent undue vibration. Checking the rear axle angle is something that you can do and should do now. All you need is a magnetic angle gauge which you can place on the pinion flange. You will probaby find that the pinion is angled upwards around 3 to 5 degrees from horizontal. Write that down somewhere, when you get the new rear axle built up you'll have to match that angle at the pinion before you weld on the spring perches. That's the same angle you want to install your engine trans package, I usually measure that from the end of the transmission output shaft if I have room for the gauge there. You may want to postion the new engine at a slightly differnent angle, that's ok as long as it matches the rear pinion angle, so don't finish weld the rear spring perches until you get the engine permanently mounted and can verify the angles.
Got my trans yesterday.Going to drill the bell housing today and maybe try and get the motor sitting in the engine compartment.Wish me luck!
Hears a pitcher after cutting things away for the trans.I cut over to the other brace that runs length ways.
I should have plenty of room now but I still feel funny about messing with that support.
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Mike, you either need to use a flash or get some more light on the car when you take photos. My old eyes aren't that good anymore. It appears that you have it right as far as I can tell. You're right, there's no need to cut into the main frame members on either side of the trans, only trim out the center of the crossmember where the trans mount is and that's only to move it back 2". When you get the trans bolted to the engine and set in place you'll begin to see where there are extra bits on the trans case that can be trimmed off to increase clearance on the sides and keep the tunnel as narrow as possible for more leg room. Where the speedo comes out I made a bit of a metal "bubble" to cover that and made that panel removable so that I could get into the cable connection for maintenance and to hook it up.
Sorry about that Bill.Hears another pitcher of that.
Also hears what I came up with for the tranny mount.I started with a solid piece of aluminum bar stock. Drilled it and cut the "wedge" out on my band saw.The stock was just a tad small so I made a type of angled washer to fill things in.I think I may head down to the local steel mart a buy a piece wide enough and do it over so its right though
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Mike, looks good. If you add a section of 2" square tubing just behind the original crossmember you will have plenty of strength in that area. Run it as wide as the ends of the main frame rails and weld it to the existing crossmember and the floor pan and it'll be fine. I can still jack my car up using the original jack points in the ends of the crossmember without any flex. Hang the rear mount from the new crossmember and things fit fine.
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Thanks Bill,
I picked up my 2" tubing today as well as the bell housing,Bolted everything together and stared to do a mock up of the engine in the car.Wow not a lot of room is there? The tranny slave cylinder bracket hits on the one side and the starter is hitting the other. I know you said you had to do a bit of pounding with the hammer on the starter side But would you mind repeating to me what you had to do to the other side to make everything work.
Ive been looking at the thread on this whole slave cylinder thing and it gets a bit confusing.This guys got a new style camaro bell housing going into a mgb.That guys got a s-10 bell housing going into ...
I have an old style camaro bell housing.that is bolted on a 2.8 out of a 85 S-10 and that is bolted on a T-5 that is also from a camaro.The whole thing is going into a Midget.(I know you know all this bill just thought I`d let everyone know) I just want to know how to get the job done for my situation.What type of slave cylinder,How to mount it ,ect
Still having a great time doing this project. I have a 70 mustang that I spent almost 10 years restoring that was a real labor of love as well.But as I tell my wife "Its good therapy"
Thanks again for all the help.I would be lost without it !
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Mike, there's not much room for the clutch on a Midget installation. The S10 housing mounts the slave cylinder to the rear which would really be in serious clearance issue with the trans tunnel. You need to either use an HTOB (see Brian for that) or do as I did and modify your clutch release fork and mount a slave cylinder basically in the area of the left side starter ear on the bell housing. It's all described in the information on my car in the photo section. http://www.britishv8.org/MG/BillYoung.htm
I really didn't get a good photo of those parts when I was building the car, this is about the best I have, the slave cylinder isn't shown, just the mounting bracket. The bracket and slave are from a Spifire or 1500 series Midget.
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That was a great help bill. Had a time cutting that 3/8 thick plate for the bell housing but we got it done.
Do you think any other slave cylinder would work.It would just be nice to be able to go to a parts store and find one.Around where I live finding anything for an mg is quite a task.
I was wondering if I could take a stock cylinder from the camaro bell housing and just move it to where I would put the one from a 1500? Or maybe theirs another type that has the same type of mount that would work?
That HTOB looks like the way to go but it cost a little more than I can afford right now.If I new weather or not I could find one at the scrap yard that would work I mite go that way.I wonder If anything would "interchange"
Mike, I chose the 1500 Midget cylinder because I knew it would mount easily and also match up with the volume of the clutch master cylinder. The bracket might be a bit more difficult to find, but the slave cylinder itself is available from most of the MG sources such as VB, Moss, or others. I bought my last one from the Little British Car Company as they had the best price. As for the bracket, someone around has a late model Midget that's being parted out and can get you one. Check with guys on any of the MG Forums such as the MG Experience or British Car Forum. You might also contact Tony Barnhill ( the Autoist) http://www.theautoist.com/ He is both a Moss and VB reseller where you can save some bucks but also has a supply of used bits as well so might have the bracket. You could also use the slave off of a Triumph TR6 as I think Bill Spohn did on his car, but again a bracket will have to be fabricated. The original Camaro slave cylinder uses a strange type of tube fitting and I'm not sure how to adapt it to the MG system. I think that someone makes a conversion fitting for that, but I can't remember who right now.
Did you say 3/8" plate? That's heavy duty for sure, I used 3/16" plate and it worked fine. It's still a bit to cut out with the torch and then finish grind but it didn't take long.
Just found a cylinder,mount and line on e-bay for 40.00 plus 10.00 for shipping.
I called the guy up and its on the way. What luck!
Yes it was 3/16. I used a porta-band as much as I could,Die grinder and whatever I had that would cut or grind.
I had the bell housing blasted today and cut away the stock mount on that..
I welded in the support today Hope I did a good enough job as I`m not much of a welder.
I may just set the motor and tranny in tomorrow so I c`an get some mounts made up.
Bill Is this about where the transmission should be sitting?
It makes things really tight up front by the steering rack/pulleys.
Hear are a couple of photos.
Where should I be on the height as far as the tranny goes?
transmock-1.jpg
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That's about right Mike. Mine was a little further forward as I modified the lower pulley to a single V belt and it just barely clears the steering rack, just enough clearance to slip a 3/8" V belt through. At the rear it's looking pretty good, but I think I did notch the crossmember piece a bit to clear the transmission so I could get the tail shaft a bit lower. You can add the plate for the rear mount directly to the rear of the new crossmember and make a cut out in the pan for access to the bolts and you're in business.
When you start forming the sheet metal to cover the transmission for extra clearance you'll want to take your saw and trim off the mounting tabs on the side of the main case. Don't forget to weld in some end caps on the crossmember pieces to keep water out to prevent corrosion and to add a bit of strength as well. At this point the rest is going to be pretty much up to your design as it does differ slightly from my car so my actual designs aren't going to be a straight swap, but the basics are still the same. Remember to leave yourself some access holes in the tranny tunnel to check the fluid levels etc. as well as to reach some bolts if necessary for maintenance. Easy to make small sheet metal covers for those and screw them on to retain the strength in that area.
As far as setting the angle, that needs to be taken into consideration along with the pinion angle to make sure the U joints run in phase and you don't get any bad vibrations. There was a post on that subject just a few days ago on the forum I think.
Again many thanks bill.Yes I think I will try and bring everything down a bit if I can.I also may try to notch that support.If I can get about an inch more it would make a few more things (like the motor mounts) easier to deal with.
Just a note, for my pulley I took the stock one from the 2.8 and drilled out the spot welds and with a bit of careful tapping and prying I was able to separate the two pieces.If you look close at the pulley you can see where they can be taken apart.
Lastly do you think it would be wise to cut away some of the side compartment on the starter side for access?
Mike, you should be able to tap the edge of the foot well in about a half inch with a big hammer to clear the starter, I didn't have to cut anything there, but if you want to make a bit more clearance then go for it and cut a bit away. You might have to as your engine seems to be fitting a bit farther back than mine. I did the lower crank pully a bit differently, wound up using a single pulley from some old T Bird I found in the salvage yard and drilled to fit. I think the water pump pulley on my car came from a Fiero as it was a bit closer fitting than the Camaro one. I just mixed and matched to get the engine as far forward as I could to keep from cutting into the heater support any more than I had to while still having clearance for the steering rack. Not the easiest way to go I guess, but it worked out ok and I still have the heater and battery in the stock locations. Every swap winds up with some things different from others, just do what you have to do in order that things fit and work for you.
One note, make sure you install a good new starter before you install the engine. I know from experience that once the engine is in place you can't remove the starter mounting bolts so a bad starter either means an engine pull or rebuilding the starter with the nose housing still on the engine. That's doable, I've done it three times now, but I should have installed a new one from the start.
Bill when you cut your tunnel did you go back past the E-brake handle?I have the transmission sitting about where I think it should be Just seems a bit high.The u-joint is really close to the tunnel.
Think I got the mount figured out though, I`m just going to weld a plate on the floor and the back side of the new support and run the transmission mount bolt right threw the floor.
No, I didn't have to go back that far. I did cut an access hole in the top of the tunnel so I could get to the front U-joint and secured it with about a dozen sheet metal screws. The ashtray now mounts directly on the top of that panel so you can get an idea of it's position in the photos. The clearance is tight with the larger Chevy u-joint, but remember it really won't move around much if the motor mounts are in good condition. You actually removed a lot more of the original tunnel than I did, I left about a 2" section from the floor up all around and built up from there,
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Made my motor mounts over the last couple days.I used transmission mounts from a 76 chevy pickup.I think they should work fine.
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