Engine & Transmission Installation

I wanted to get the engine & transmission installed before I figured out where the front suspension was going to end up to make sure that the oil pan would clear and that the there would be enough room for the distributor and rotor cap. I wanted to make sure that the transmission tail shaft was centered in the frame at the right height to use the existing driveshaft hoop the\at is part of the frame.

I moved the gantry crane over the engine so that I would have plenty of adjustment room and control and I supported the back of the transmission tail shaft with a floor jack and slowly moved the engine into the frame, centered the tail shaft in the frame and leveled the engine at the carburetor mount.  The engine motor mounts were installed and the bottom of the weld in mounts ended up at the top of the frame.

I made supports for the motor mounts from 4″x4″ angle iron 6″ long and drilled a series of 1/4″ holes for plug welds to the frame and I cleaned the frame and the mounts and primed with weld-thru and measures from know reference points on the front of the original frame to make sure that the mounts were square with the frame and I clamped the mounts in flush with the top of the frame, moved the engine out of the way and plug welded them in and dropped the engine back down and rechecked square, level and centered.

I installed a new transmission mount on the tail of the TH400 trany and made a mount using 2″x1″ X 24″ rectangule tubing and bolted it in place to the transmission mount and the when I rechecked everything again I drilled new mounting holes in the frame and mount instead of welding it in place so I could remove it or move it easily.