On Monday I spent the day repairing Mom and Dad’s tractor mower, fixing Mom’s computer, getting the chainsaw and weed eater working, and more. Dad made sure I was doing everything right, as you can see in this photo.

On Tuesday I got a chance to work on Biscuit. I started by cleaning up the frame some more so that I could deciding how the engine, tranny and tc would be mounted. The T-18 I’m installing is a bit shorter than the automatic TH-350 I’m replacing, which is the reason for the redesign.

Here’s where I started today.

When I bolted the T-18 to the adapter to the Dana 20/18 (Dana 20 housing, Dana 18 gears) I discovered my custom mount is too tight against the T-18. So, I’m going to have to alter that.

Here’s the combo together (temporarily — I still need a clutch, pressure plate and some other items) so I could test it inside the frame.

Oops, I forgot to remove the shifter.

I dropped the drive train into the frame. The first thing I discovered is that the bottom of the tranny just barely hits the undercarriage. So, I’ll have to work around that. Fortunately I can move everything forward a little.

Below you can see where the headers were installed. The motor sits quite a bit farther back. Fortunately, I had plenty of room between the cowl and the previous motor. 

Tomorrow I will design the piece that supports the transmission/ transfer case in the rear (actually attaches to the adapter between the two). Then I’ll build the engine mounts if I have time.