Mr. Green's Surgery

[dirtman13]

Are you having fun yet?

[TipsE-Z]

Looks awesome Mike. You folks with fabrication skills always amaze me.

[aw12345]

His fun is just starting lol, just wait till the welding starts

[Russ Chung]

Mike,

You said that raising the Atlas t-case so that you have a flat belly would create clearance issues with 1) your stock seats, 2) your catalytic converter, 3) the drive shaft tunnel, and 4) your hood. You haven't said anything about a body lift. It seems that a body lift would give you room for all four of those items.

Admittedly, that doesn't solve the problem with the front drive shaft angle but you might be able to live with it if you can disengage the front drive shaft when you're in 2wd, and then get high angle u-joints for when you are in 4wd.

Russ

[aw12345]

The front driveshaft angle should not be an issue since it will be plenty long, rear might be more of an issue. Russ you are right about disconnecting the hub in 2 wheel drive will take care of yoke angle issues up front. Her has already a body lift. He should be able to do a flat belly with some tenacity and ingenuity.

[WagoneerRon]

I cant wait to see this baby i plan to do 1 tons on my xj just waiting on money haha

[Mike]

Are you having fun yet?

Oh yeah!! Learning that I am going to be buying more stuff than I planned for originally. Too late to back out now.

His fun is just starting lol, just wait till the welding starts

Ha! First bit of welding will start either tonight or tomorrow night.

Mike,

You said that raising the Atlas t-case so that you have a flat belly would create clearance issues with 1) your stock seats, 2) your catalytic converter, 3) the drive shaft tunnel, and 4) your hood. You haven't said anything about a body lift. It seems that a body lift would give you room for all four of those items.

Admittedly, that doesn't solve the problem with the front drive shaft angle but you might be able to live with it if you can disengage the front drive shaft when you're in 2wd, and then get high angle u-joints for when you are in 4wd.

Russ

Thanks Russ. As Art said, I put a 1 inch lift in first. I don't want to go any higher with the body, so I am going to end up with a partial drop area of 1 inch below the frame. Only the trans mount and the Atlas will need to be be at that level. I have some creative ideas for a skid, but that is for another time.

Next step is to lift the engine a bit and then build a new transmission mount to support the rest. Stay tuned...

[6spdYJ]

Browndog offroad makes a lifted motor mount. They are available in poly or rubber. They are very stout pieces. The issues with lifting the motor are the fan shroud - which is easily remedied by an electric fan, and the back of the valve cover getting very close to the firewall. It won't hit or cause any "problems" until you try to change the valve cover gasket.

[aw12345]

If ya gonna do a motormount lift and what not, this might be your ticket

http://www.stinkyfab.com/heavy-duty-....html?limit=15

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...levant_count=3

[CVD]

Mike,
FYI - here’s how mine is setup (my clearance issues were due to the slightly deeper AW4 trans, not the t-case).

I have the MORE 1” higher motor mounts, plus a 3/8” spacer (you can barely see the aluminum spacer under the motor mount in the pic). Without cutting the tub, we couldn’t quite get a “flat to the frame” skid. In the 2’d pic, Blaine added 3/8” spacers between the skid and frame rails (still completely smooth on the bottom).

BTW – no need to go to electric fan with a MML (unless you want to). If your do a BL and MML together, the fan shroud stays in the same place. Even if the fan shroud needs to move up, it’s simply a couple extra holes in the plastic.

Cliff

[Mike]

I appreciate the advice, but I didn't buy new mounts. I didn't see the options until after I came up with my own. So let me know if you think that this will work:

I put several different plates under the stock mount to lift it that didn't work, but I ended up having to go to 2" square tube for the spacer:


I welded a proper-sized bolt thread to the stud on the stock mount to make it longer, and I am using a longer bolt for the other side.

The lift caused the fan to touch the top of the shroud:


But when I lifted the drive train up 3 inches at the transmission mount, the clearance goes back to close to normal:


So before I make the transmission mount, will this design be sufficient for the motor torque and other forces?

[dirtman13]

I don't see any issues with that other than making sure your drive line angles are ok. I would consider replacing the rubber on the engine mount since your in there.

[Mike]

I don't see any issues with that other than making sure your drive line angles are ok. I would consider replacing the rubber on the engine mount since your in there.

Cool. The original drive line angle was 8.5 degrees (measured at the top of the throttlebody). The new drive line angle is 6 degrees. The real truth will reveal itself when I start the suspension, but the change doesn't seem to be drastic to me. Hopefully, this will be sufficient to prevent drive shaft vibration.

[6spdYJ]

How thick is the wall on the square tubing? The increase in leverage will be negligible but a hard landing might buckle thin wall.

[daniel_buck]

Could tack weld an X shape on the inside?