Hey guys, it's been a while since I've done an update on the thread here, so I figured I'd spend an hour or so and see if I couldn't cover a bit more ground for ya.
After the engine and transmission combo were dropped in, I had to switch to "engineer" mode and make sure all the bases were covered when it came to things such as driveline and U-joint operating angles. One of my pet peeves about these car TV shows is that they show installations of all sorts of interesting engine and trans combinations and swaps, however they just kind of plop the thing into place and fab up a trans mount wherever the thing happens to sit (more or less).
In actuality, these things need to be carefully thought and planned out, especially when a manual transmission is concerned. How many times have you heard stories about "so and so" that swapped an engine in their car with a manual trans, and then had a mysterious driveline shimmy they just couldn't seem to find? Drivelines need to be placed in the chassis at the correct angle, in fact most intake manifolds have the carb mounting flange milled at a different angle than the head and block mounting surfaces, usually negative 2-3 degrees. This is done so that the carb will sit level in the car when the rest of the driveline angle is correct. In addition, the U-joints in the driveshaft have optimal operating angles they need to be within to operate correctly.
With all this in mind, the frame was leveled fore and aft on jackstands at ride height, right down to shimming under the stands to get it perfect. The carb was removed, and a level was placed on the mounting surface. With a floor jack under the tail shaft, the engine and transmission were adjusted accordingly with the crossmember already bolted to the transmission. This gave me the correct placement of the transmission crossmember in relation to the framerails.
In this pic, (even tho its upside down) you can see the oversized frame brackets I made that allow the crossmember to be placed anywhere up or down on the framerails.
Once the up and down location had been determined, the frame mounts were then trimmed down closer to the final size and tack welded onto the frame.
Once this was completed, rather than fully burn them in at this point, I shifted my attention to the drivehaft and the U-joints. The reason for this was if for any reason I found that the relationship angles between the driveshaft and the transmission, or the driveshaft and the differential exceeded the optimal U-joint operating angles, I could go back, cut the tack welds, and get a little bit of leeway to make everything work together. Being that I am using UMI's adjustable upper and lower trailing arms, I had lots of adjustability on the differential side of things. The transmission to driveshaft however, is where I was limited.
There were SO many things to take into account when I was doing this... Ride height, recommended U-joint operating angles, (Spicer has a really good reference online if I recall correctly) pinion angle, driveline angle, driveshaft angle etc made this far more challenging than I initially thought it would be. I did however, manage to get it all sorted out and to the point where all the components would function correctly with very little, if any, concessions being made.
When it was all said and done, the final crossmember mount locations were determined, the mounts were further trimmed (for hardline mounting clearance), and fully welded in.
This is one of the finished mounts and its final location.
Finally, after all the engineering mumbo jumbo was done, it was time to move onto something far more fun and rewarding: Plumbing and wiring the chassis.
You've undoubtedly noticed the bright red cable running along the framerail in some of the pics, that's because the battery has been relocated to the trunk, inside the spare tire well to be exact. Not much besides the obvious to say there, it cleans up under the hood, shifts weight to the rear of the car to help with weight transfer, etc. Beyond that, lines needed to be run for the air bags, brake lines, line loc, and fuel supply and return lines. Starting on the driver's side, locations for tubing were carefully planned out and the process was begun with mounting the Hurst line loc.
The line loc itself acts as kind of a natural "tee", so I ran the supply from the front reservoir on the master cylinder into the side port on the line loc, then ran the other 2 ports out to the front calipers. Note all the brake lines are the same size, this car is now equipped with 4 wheel disc brakes, so 3/16" lines are needed front and back. Now, here's where things get kind've interesting...
In planning ahead, I decided early on that I wanted an ultra clean and smooth engine bay, and that meant little or nothing on the firewall. No small feat in a G body, as you know. Most things weren't going to be a problem for me, and the booster and master cylinder were't going to be either, believe it or not. Taking a page from the street rodders that don't have engine bay clearance, I decided to relocate both the clutch and brake master cylinders to underneath the dash. How is that done, you ask? Kugel Komponents, Classic Performance Parts and others make a compact 90 degree under dash pedal assembly that allows the mounting of the clutch and brake master cylinders for either a manual brake or even HydroBoosted setup.
Here's what I'm talking about.
So how does that pertain to mounting brake lines on the framerail? After careful thought and consideration, I decided that brake lines will be run inside the car under the dash, over to and behind the driver's side kick panel, down to the floor, and back towards the driver's seat. From there, they will go thru 2 bulkhead connectors in the floor, and start travelling to their respective locations on the framerail. The bulkhead attatching fittings (plugged off) are visible here on the left side of the photo:
The left hand tube goes towards the rear of the car to supply the rear calipers, and the right hand one goes into the aforementioned line loc.
The 3/8" tube visible below the battery cable supplies air to the passenger front airbag. It enters into a bulkhead connector in stainless tubing on the outside of the frame, then turns to flexible non-braided high pressure hose going to the 'bag on the other side of the bulkhead connector.
All hard lines on the car are done in 316 stainless steel tubing and custom bent, routed, and mounted by me. The tubing clamps are "Made for You" brand, aquired from Summit Racing. Obviously there is no access to inside the framerails, so each clamp location was drilled and tapped to accomodate the mounting screw. AN 37 degree fittings are used exclusively throughout, eliminating the need to do 45 degree double flares which tend to crack when attempted in stainless.
In addition, there are NO unions, joints or otherwise in ANY of the tubes, they are all one piece from point A to B, just like the factory did. This in itself proved to be rather interesting. Try having 16 bends in a 20' length of $100 stainless tubing, oh, and don't screw up that 17th bend, or it's all scrap! Towards the end of a long run I would get rather nervous to say the least! In fact, when bending those 20' pieces, I would have to go out into the alley and bend them out there as there wasn't enough room in my 24' long garage! Ah, good times...
Anyways, I'm going to let the pics do the talking for a bit...Enjoy.
