But from below, you can see that it very nearly interferes with the front axle and steering linkage. This probably means that it will have to be mounted at a slight angle to keep from running into these components as we go over bumps. Which means that there is less room in the engine compartment for batteries than I had thought. This will require some redesign of the front racks. Oh, well.
I also dropped the transmission and transfer case. This puppy is *heavy* - not sure how heavy, over 200 pounds at a guess. Much heavier than my Porsche transmission. It needs a little scrubbing, too - 20 years of grease and road grime are not pretty:
8 comments:
Do you think the lift kit will help any with the clearance issue? I don't know about the steering linkage, but it seems it might help with the drive axle clearance.
I think it will help some, but I'm not counting on those two inches once I add 3/4 ton of batteries. I don't think it will help with the steering linkag - that one bent piece in the foreground is the closest interference, and it is attached directly to the frame on the right side of the picture.
The best solution will be to mount the engine / transmission package at a slight angle, IMO.
If the transfer case will allow for the angle offset, seeing that two driveshafts would then be slightly offset. . .I wonder how much stress that will add to the u-joints?
I noticed in Nick's modified Jeep that his transfer case drives the front axle very much off the centerline of the vehicle. That would tend to have greatly simplified things for him, I suppose. I've seen tranny/transfer case mount "extenders" for use in extreme lift modifications. Would something like that in addition to a steering arm modification give you the clearance you need? You're already going to sacrifice some ground clearance with your dropped rear deck, after all.
My front axle drive is also not centered. It helps some, but not enough in the "default" orientation of the motor. I've been thinking about it a lot, and I think the best option is actually to *rotate* the motor 45 degrees about the shaft axis. This would put the mounting plate & bolts 45 degrees away from the sway bar & axle. This will give roughly an additional inch of clearance and will keep the tranny & transfer case more in-line with the driveshafts.
What software are you using to make your CAD drawings? A good 3D CAD tool would make this an easy task...
I use Corel Draw :-) I'm too cheap to spend $4K on a *real* CAD program. I've thought about trying one of the free ones but it has not been an obstacle so far.
I use an AutoCAD competitor called IntelliCAD from CADopia. It runs ~$295 for a single copy. It is perfectly fine for 2-D work. For 3-D, I'd recommend Alibre Design. It runs $1,499 for the Professional version, but they often run specials -- sometimes even half-off. The Pro version does everything that I would ever need, including photo-realistic rendering and large assembly support.
nice conversion job !
thank you for sharing information.
I hope next time I can do the same job :)
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