5
Surgery Begins
Now, to make it fit. Again, Heard is going to use an 8BA, but an early engine will constitute the same length. He started by mounting the empty, dummy block onto the stock mounts at the front. Then, a cast truck-type bell housing goes into the mix, with a WILCAP Flathead-to-Chevy engine adapter which has the inclusive clutch throwout cross-shaft coming next. Bolted to this beautiful WILCAP adapter, the Camaro T5 main case bolts-up easy as pie. Then of course, the Jeep 4X4 extension housing is bolted to the rear of that. Then comes the aluminum adapter plate, and finally the stock Ford BEARING RETAINER, to which the Ford clamshell parts will eventually bolt. I’ve included a picture of the stock Ford rear transmission mount with the torque tube bolted-up so that you can visualize the original position of the rear of the original 3-speed. Anyway, the additional pictures show the initial interference between the black Jeep housing and the center frame CROSSMEMBER box assembly. We’ve also included a picture of one of these ’35 Ford center CROSSMEMBER box assemblies which has been removed from a frame, so that it is easier to see how it is built, and exactly what it is that needs the majority of the surgery. It would be easy to remove this BOX entirely, but we concluded that a lot of rigidity and integrity would be retained if we left as much of this center structure in place as possible. One important thing to remember about this center box is that it contains the mount for the wishbone ball at the bottom front. We tried every way possible to keep that ball socket, but the very rear, bottom surface on the Jeep housing would not quite go low enough with it remaining in place. You can see the interference in one of the pictures below. By lowering the rear of the WISHBONE the way we did, I believe my calculations showed that it only increased the front axle CASTER by about 1.5 degrees positive. Anyway, Heard just started rough-trimming the box until the entire Jeep housing would fit down low enough that the Jeep output shaft ended-up level with the original drive shaft and torque tube level. He determined the centerline of that level, as seen marked on the wooden stick in the picture. He aimed a laser through from the front of the engine’s main bearing caps thru the rear of the empty, mock-up trans and focused on the mark on the stick to get the final rear elevation for the Jeep housing.
Of course, a rear mount needed to be designed and created. You’ll note the rubber mounting pads that are seen in the pics, that the bolts pass through to secure the rear of the Jeep housing via bolt holes threaded into the housing’s bottom surface for some alternative mounting purpose. In addition, the wishbone also needed a new mounting mechanism. Heard carefully trimmed and saved pieces of the original ball socket, also seen in pics. He milled a receiver block to hold the socket in the proper position on the bottom of the new rear mounting plate, but a similar block could be carved-out appropriately with hacksaw and drill press if necessary. The pictured transmission / wishbone mounting plate could be built in many different, yet similar forms, but the way he decided to go is both strong as hell, and simple. Note that the surfaces of the four tabs that bolt to the bottom of the frame are not level with each other, as the bottom surface of the frame rails at that point curves ever so slightly. The mount plate is fairly self-explanatory via the pictures.
