sm420 to dana 300 with a 225 v6

Hi, I'm building a 70 cj5 with a 225 v6 using a sm420 4 speed and a dana 300 tc. I am having trouble fitting in the stock cross member that attaches to the new novak tc adapter using a stock gm rubber mount. Can anyone help?

 

probably gonna have to build a new x-member. someones gotta be running something similar, try tech section and search.

 

Well Willymakeit..... haha.... I just posted the same thing, seems like there is no other person out there doing this!

 

Have not done one with a dana 300 but I and firefighter mike have installed an sm420 with a dana 18 in his cj6. We used the stock crossmember, moved it about 2", put 1" thick spacers between it and the frame and redrilled the frame rails . Made a 10* shim to fit between the Novak GM mount and cross member and stuck the 7/16" bolt thru the center hole in the crossmember that we elongated about 3/8". It fits nice. If you send him a pm he can probably post a picture of the setup that shows the shim, mount and the lowering blocks.

 

Good to see this thread. I am about to do the same install in my CJ6. My 420 / D300 came with a custom cross member but I hope to use the stock one. Maybe Firefighter Mike could post up a pic or two as it seems a few people are interested in this set up.

Curt

 

Hey Guys! I put SM420 D300 in 86 CJ (I know I know WAAAAY too new, but may apply) used a 78 Chevy 4X4 crossmember and redrilled bottom of frame to mount. Worked great and bushings were only $16

 

you cant really use the stock crossmember, theres not enough drop and it requires way too much cutting the even get close. it does require some thinking or a different cross member altogether.

 

I am at work now, I will take some pic's and post them in the AM.

 

How about them pics Firefighter Mike??

 

I had to make a custom... mine is so far from OEM looking that it's not even funny.. Mine was a 420 - 18 combo. The 300 would be cool but isn't it a bit wide or the early 5 frame?


BUBBA

 

how long will the driveshaft end up being with that sm420 and d300? is this
going in a cj5? bob

 

Mike got called into work on a couple extra shifts, he'll post pics today or tomorow.

 

OK, sorry for the delay, On top of having to work, I went to take the pic's and the batteries were dead in my camera. Here they are. Mcruff can chime in on the specific's. I think we moved to crossmember back to where the front holes bolted into the original back mounting holes. There are several holes in the frame and I am not exactly sure which one's were the factory crossmember holes. Hope these help.

 

Do you have any pic's of your crossmember's so we can mock up something similar? Maybe we can make it work in our shorty cj.

 

Hi, It looks like your ground clearance is serverly limited. Any way to fab up a skid plate on yours?

 

I wouldn't call 16-17" clearance severely limited, he has more ground clearance setup like that than the factory t98 or t18 option had. The hole setup sits 3/4" lower than the factory t86 unit set and thats it.
As far as the skid plate he can still use the factory one if he wants to, if not we can make one that connects to the frame rails and covers the crossmember that will drop it about another 3/8" tops.
This will work perfectly on the cj5 as its the same setup as I'm gonna use and pretty much the same as John Heika used in his tech writeup.

 

That looks real nice.

I used the stock crossmember. I didn't wanted to change the transfer case mount. I just cut and reinforced the center to clear the SM465 case. This way I wouldn't lose ground clearance. I also used the stock 2wd SM465 trans mount.

http://groups.msn.com/ScottShannonMilliner/sm465.msnw?Page=1

Seems to me that. Being the SM420 has a longer adapter, I'm sure you could use the stock crossmember.