Transmission Mount
03/11/06

The transfercase banging on the bottom of the body was getting on my nerves.  The reason it was hitting was because the skid plate had deformed enough to allow it.  I've never liked the fact that the tail end of the drive train mounted to the plate, so I decided to change it.  While I was in there I fixed a couple other problems too.  My shifting linkage for the rear drive shaft (on the Atlas) had come disconnected.  I threaded it back together and added a double nut to prevent it from happening again.  The other problem was the exhaust had bent up enough that it was almost touching the body under the passenger's feet.  A few items had melted on the floor there.  I notched the bottom of the exhaust down pipe where it attaches to the catalytic converter and then bent the assembly down and re-welded it back together.

On to the transmission mount.  After removing the skid plate I positioned the drive train where I wanted it (about 2.5" lower than it was.)  I measured up all the parts I'd need, then cut and welded everything together (sorry for glazing over the details, but who really cares anyways?).  Here's a few pics of what I came up with.  The mounting tabs welded to the frame are 1/4" thick along with the mounting bracket on the transmission.  The tubing used was two pieces of 1.25" x 0.25" DOM.