Drivetrain relocated

[Whitsend]

Hello all, first post on this forum.
After having several jeeps when I was younger, gave them up when family life came along. The kids are gone, so back to it.
I just purchased a 1980 CJ5 that needs quite a bit of to get it road worthy, but can't figure something out. It appears that the drivetrain has been relocated to the rear a little more than an inch. The motor mount purches have been modified, the valve cover is touching the firewall as well as Transmission mounting holes in the skid plate. The motor is the straight six and the Transmission is T-176 . As far as I know, this is how it came from the factory (but maybe not?). What reason would there be to relocate like this? Any ideas?

 

[hole]

Worn or broken mounts can put the engine against the firewall, but you say they are modified :dunno: Unless the engine in it is longer than a stock AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l , like a Ford 300 ? Without seeing it I'm spitting out senerios to start off the conversation. Oh yeah, Welcome

 

[Torxhead]

I would go with shot motor mounts. Another thing to notice would be the clutch linkage bellcrank. It is supposed to be perpendicular to the frame, if not it can put stress on the pivots and one will break. Plus there are plastic bushings inside of the bellcrank that can wear out. This can cause the bellcrank to fall off the pivots. Either of these are not fun to have happen on the trail.

 

[Whitsend]

I looked at the clutch linkage, it looks to be in the right place. Do the motor mount perches that are bolted to the frame differ depending on which motor is installed? Thinking maybe someone swapped out the V-8 for the six and modified the perches instead of replacing them. The other interesting thing is that there is only about an inch of clearance between the fan and radiator...
Can someone with a similar configuration tell me how much clearance the have between the valve cover and the firewall at the closest point?

 

[Torxhead]

You could inspect those motor mounts. The fan clearance could be adjusted. I do think there should be more space at the back of the valve cover. Is that valve cover aluminum? as they are larger. Another check would be how the shifter clearance holes on the body is with the shift levers . The location between the body and frame can be adjusted also.

 

[Jimbos76cj]

I agree with the check the motor mounts to see if they are broken. The V8 nd 6 cyl mounts are not interchangable (on the motor side). Now does that mean some one didnt beat it into place?? cant say. Id also look at the way your body is positioned on the frame. Any thing I put a CJ body back on the frame I make sure the sheet metal under the tailgate is even with the rear cross member. Those body mounts can move quite a bit further then you would think. Ive seen them so far out to one side that a rear axle looks noticably longer on one side.

Post some pics of the motor mounts so we can see what they look like.

 

[CJim7]

Just to add to the confusion....When I installed my AMC 258 i6 / 4.2l , the back of the valve cover was virtually touching the firewall tunnel. I probably had less then an inch of clearance. I tried moving the frame mounts to the next set of holes forward and ran into clearance issues with the fan/radiator.

It bothered me so much I eventually just swapped to a V8.

 

[gert]

It bothered me so much I eventually just swapped to a V8.

:rock: