D98: Shifter & Engine Bay Bracing

I finally got around to working on the shift linkage. I've been wanting to get this done for while, or at least try it out to see if the design would work. I realized after the first engine fit that the shift linkage was too short and needed to be moved further back. Here is what I've got so far. I cut the original linkage and extended it by about 4 inches. The new shift lever uses a couple pieces of 3/4" .120 wall DOM tubing with a 1/2" bolt to hold them together. The pivot is a 3/4" heim joint.

One thing I like about this design is that I can adjust how short the "throw" is by unscrewing the bolt to change the motion ration.

I also got around to adding some extra bracing to the engine bay. The top pic is a removable brace that goes over the transmission tunnel. This makes it much easier to get the engine in and out. The bottom pic is the brace on the drivers side of the engine bay. I also added one to the passenger side as well.

D41: PT2 - Engine Fit 5

With the transmission mount built, I wanted to make sure it actually worked. So I found myself lugging the frame out of the garage and mounting the engine in it one more time. It's amazing how much more the frame weighs now than it did the first time around. One of these days I'll get a weight on the frame.

This is also the first time mounting the engine since fixing the engine mounts to the frame, so it was a good test for the positioning of those as well. You can see the final setup in the second pic.

With little else to check with the engine mounted I decided to play around with the shifter a bit. I've been a little worried that it wouldn't reach far enough back or would be too low or too high or some other issue that I hadn't yet thought of. To my surprise, it works great. The red piece is the shifter mount from the donor that I'm going to work into the new body panels. This way all the mounts, holes, etc are already there and all I have to do is weld it in.