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Front driveshaft clearance

D

denzilm

New member
City
Dodge City
State
KS
First time post... I'm having an issue where my front driveshaft out of my dana 300 is occasionally striking the TH350 oil pan. Never had this issue with this same setup in a previous CJ, however, I didn't install these particular motor mounts. My front pumpkin is already as far to the passenger side that it will go without modifying the front axles. Other alternatives include repositioning the motor and trans more towards the driver side or clocking my t-case, which I've never done. Also, my front driveshaft is weighted to balance it. If those weights were in a different spot, they wouldn't hit the pan and only a spinning driveshaft would strike it, which probably wouldn't puncture a hole in the pan. Installing a better balanced driveshaft without the weights would likely help but not solve the clearance issue altogether. Questions: Are there any mods or adapters for a dana 300 that would move the front driveshaft further towards the passenger side? Or, would another T-case, like an Atlas, give me more clearance? BTW, I'm running a SBC.
 
Are you running the skinny OE front shaft? How flat is the case indexed?

I looked an 8 years ago with that combo. It's very tight with factory axles. Always wondered how tight a factory TH400 was in a CJ.
 
What is the diameter of your front driveshaft? I have a 700R4 in mine. Clearance is always an issue. I run an NP241C on mine. There are tons of CJs with TH350, 400 and 700r4s. It is possible, but you may need to shift the engine/trans and transfer cases to the drivers side. Interestingly enough, when I swapped my dana 44 front I gained clearance. Still not much, but I could probably run a 2" vs 1.25" OD front shaft. BTW, Tom Woods makes a skinny front shaft specifically for this issue. That may be worth a look as well.
 
I had started a dana 44 front project for another CJ, but it sit for about 5 years, so I let it go. Man, I wished I still had it now. It was out of a J10 and both sides were going to have to be shortened. Never, ever sell Jeep parts. You just never know.

The driveshaft is stock. I'm looking for a silver bullet but I'm not seeing any other fixes other than relocating the motor about 1-1.5 inches. That should give the driveshaft about 3/8 to 1/2 inch of clearance at the closest point (near the back of the pan).
 
Rosco1974 said:
. Always wondered how tight a factory TH400 was in a CJ.
Click to expand...
Interestingly enough it isn't that terrible with the AMC TH400. It is clocked, pan and all counter clockwise when looking from the rear. The quadratrac t-case runs a CV style 1310 driveshaft with a normal 2" diameter. It looks funny when you first looks at it... but it works.
 
Thanks for the Post. Just confirms for me that if I can get 1/2 inch by moving my engine mounts, that's probably the best way to go.
 
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