Anyone put a t176 in a '79 CJ5???

[Carolinafan58]

well I have one in in mine and noticed the back of my motor(AMC 304 ) was up against the fire wall; only on the drivers side. The motor mount on that side was in real bad shape so I replaced it. when the guy put the 176/Dana 300 combo in there he somehow managed to use the old skid plate(late 70's version) and it wasn't level it sloped down towards the rear. this made my rear drive shaft bottom out when compressed. now the whole drive line is off center. so now I have the correct skid plate but none of the holes line up with the ones in my frame. My plan is to attach the skid to the Transmission mount first then use a floor jack under the skid to raise it to the proper height. I'm hoping this will allow it to re center itself. I'm really hoping the rear and middle holes on the skid will line up with two most forward holes on my frame and at most I will only have to drill a hole on each side for the front holes in the skid. Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated! Also pics of the bottom of your skid showing which set of holes the two bolts attach the skid to the mount and which holes on the skid plate you used to bolt into the frame. and how far from the back of your spring mount to the first bolt in the skid. thanks for reading.

I would put pics up but I don't have any yet. ive been driving from va to sc every weekend for almost a month trying to get this done one Saturday at a time. I will take some next weekend.

 

[davey25]

I thought the skid plates were universal..but didn't the 176 come out in 80.. Could be wrong though..that would explain the hole problem

 

[Carolinafan58]

I thought that too. not the best way to find out I was wrong. but I spent most of last Saturday trying to figure out how it could go on and came up with squat.

 

[Petescj]

The skid plates from 1980 and up are different. They changed when Amc went to the Dana 300 Transfer Case .

 

[ThisGuyUKnow]

my 360 (same dimensions as your AMC 304 ) is also leaning up against the fire wall on the driver's side. It isnt on the pass side. there is a heat shield coming off of the fire wall right behind the head and this is what is touching the engine.

I also have a T-176 in it now. Were able to get clearance from the fire wall? I have heard that for v8s you have to remove that heat shield from the fire wall.