N20jeep

about to start on a belly pan for the XJ, and im going to have to move the the rear of the drivetrain up pretty high to clear the rear 4 link crossmember. because id like to have the crossmember and belly skid flush with the frame rails. and ive come to find out that making sure the crossmember and skid clear the new angle of the SYE, that this is going to be more involved than originally intended.

so has anyone here done anything similar? or know of a link to someone who has? ive got my own idea of how i want to do this, but id like to compare with someone else's to see if im overthinking it or if iv'e missed something.

john78

I'm no help on a idea but, make sure if, you do lift the back of the trans your fan doesn't come into the radiator and take into consideration when torque is is put to the rear tires the rubber trans mount has a little flex to it and the back of the trans will lift even more if you do do it make it solid hope that helps a little

PingPong

Look at my T-case doubler build. Woody and I did a true flat skid x-member/skid plate. YOu can start by doing a MM lift.... then work back from there. Be advised that once you start changing angles You are going to affect other things down stream of it.

john78

You have a link for that I'd like to look at it

PingPong

The build is on here somewhere.. also in my webshots page. I think it is in the new toy album.. somewhere around page 10-11.


I ended up cutting all my trans tunnel out to run my doubler.. thats how I achieved a close to flat skid on it.

MY MJ truggy project.. went a lot further. MOved Engine back and up, and raised the trans and doubler setup above the bottom of the frame rail to the point that I can run a double x-member under it, and still be above frame rails.

PingPong

ALso used a clocking ring and a TJ t-case. they moved the clocking up about 6* making it easier to go flat bottom

TrollHammer

Just checking to make sure I have terminology right. You guys are talking about a pan/plate that spans from framerail to framerail flat across and the transmission mounting to this?

The reason I'm a little confused is because I'm doing this as well, and from the measurements I have it's already a flat straight line on my jeep. (keeping in mind I'm modding a stock jeep)

I'm using a sheet of 3/8" plate steel, and it will mount butted up right behind the LCA mounts and continuing back about 20-28" ( 20 is where the framerail starts bending up, but the piece is about 28" and might spare me making an additional t-case skid plate). The plan is to add two more fasteners to each side, making it a total of 5 bolts to each side. If I can find a way to bend the piece to match the frame I'll add another bolt to each side behind.

Other than cutting clearances for the front driveline, cat, exhaust and the part of the t-case that drops below the plate (which will have a cover for that section), it appears that everything will be fine, straight and flat, unless I'm missing something? I noted while measuring that there isn't any measurable drop to my automatic trans mount.

Sorry if this is confusing or cluttered, I'm not sure of the common terminology for this area.

PingPong

True for the most part the bottom of a XJ is flat, but not really.. t-case and exhaust stick below the frame rail.. just enough to get hit by the mean ole rock.




We flanged both sides of the back tube to install it, also the front leg attatches to the UCa mount. When I remake it.. I plan on making it longer and attatching it to both UCA mounts

TrollHammer

Nice. That's kind of what I thought. I'm figuring on just cutting holes for things that fall below the flat line (like the exhaust) and either welding a plate over the hole when allowed, or finding something that can be bolted on over the protrusion (T-case).

As a rough idea I'm considering something like a diff cover for the trasfer case. I'd have to find one that was just the right shape and size to cover it, and thick enough it actually helps. It s that or fabbing something, which is fine.

The plate I have is surface hardened, around 3/8" thick. I saw someone made a cross brace out of thick steel, cut halfway through, beat it to the angle they wanted and filled the gap with weld. I'm afraid of my plate cracking if I were to do this, besides the fact it would take half a dozen disks to do it. The only bend I would prefer doing is the ~3 degree slope to match the frame rails about 20" back from the LCA braacket. Anyone have any ideas? I'm trying to see if someone has a break that can do it for me, but so far no dice.

Through cutting isn't all that hard for me, I have access to a plasma cutter, and slow drilling should allow me some precise holes, it's just the bend that's got me concerned.

N20jeep

well, i was going to clock my t-case but after swapping to a crossemember out of an auto XJ, i gained around an inch of clearence at the lower hanging part of the T-case.

there is now maybe a 1/4-1/2" of t-case sticking below the frame rails, which i will easily be able to shield without much of a buldge. so im just goint to leave it at that. every other part of the drivetrain is above the line