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Engine Mounts Done

• CATEGORIES: Biscuit, Features This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

I finished the engine mounts … and by finished I mean they are almost ready. They are welded and set in place, but still need some polishing and paint (as if they will be polished — maybe cleaned up a little more).  I have to pull the engine and go through it anyway, so there was no rush to get any more done.

I hadn’t planned on going through the trouble of redesigning how my engine sits within the frame, but removing the auto trans gave me more flexibility. I didn’t make the change lightly. I pondered, measured, eye-balled, used a level, and got out a crystal ball to see if I’d really be happy with the change. After all, it seemed like a lot of work for just a few inches gain. But, by making the changes I was able drop the engine slightly and shift it to the center between the frame rails. Yep, that seemed like a good idea, so I made the changes.

I wouldn’t call the mounts beautiful, but they are functional. They will be both welded to the frame and bolted (as a backup). Unfortunately, I took terrible pics (we didn’t bring our good cameras with us). Here’s a close-up of the passenger-side mount. You can’t really see the mount’s rear support, so the photo isn’t really helpful. The bolts are just placeholder bolts.

2014-05-15-jeep5As for the rear center mount, the creation of it started out smoothly. I was going to install a round tube between the two undercarriage tubs that support my tranny and tc. I jigged up the tube to-be-cut and cut a perfect pair of holes for sliding the tube onto the undercarriage tubes.

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The jig is holding the tub, which keeps it from spinning. The cutter created a perfect hole. So, why didn’t i use it? Because the installed tube was about a half inch too tall. Damn!

Once drilled, I tested the tube. That’s when I discovered it was barely too tall. I abandoned that plan for a simpler one.

After some scrounging in my very sad metal pile, I found some square tubing that was just the right size, so I drilled that and slide it between the cross members. Then I built a small mount with a rubber housing on top of that (which will be welded to the square tubing). Finally, I created a small piece that bolts to the T-18/TC adapter. The fit is good and solid and the rubber gives it some flexibility.

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This will make more sense once I weld the square tubing to the braced on top of it and paint it. But, I wanted to complete the engine mounts before finalizing the position of this back mount.

Here’s a photo from the side. You can see how the square tub fits in between the front and rear round tubing (fits tight enough that I didn’t have to weld it before putting the tranny/engine weight on it).

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Tomorrow we head back to Pasco for a while. I’m hoping to get back later this month to make more headway. Hopefully I’ll get better pics, too!

 

 

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