Thread: running gear setup

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I'm building a 33 pylmouth and plan on using a 350 chev, 5 speed to a 9 inch ford. I'm haveing problems with the under the floor pedal setup, I want to crowd the engine and tranny over to the right side of the car a bit. what is the maximum i can move it over, or how much pinion offset to I have to have. I've been to Barnes and Noble and they don't have any books on the engineering specs......is there a book out there that i can buy? any help is greatly appreciated...........thanks

Usually about 2 inches is what I have heard, off center. Main thing is to make sure engine and tranny are straight in the frame, not cocked.

I had to shift the Ford engine in my Jeep truck over a bit, and it works fine.

Don

In that chassis, it's pretty much impossible to move the engine enough to cause a problem. As long as the pinion shaft and the crankshaft are parallel with each other, you'll be fine. Lots of cars have offset pinions. Same difference.

Move it to wherever you want to, like Jack said. Many OEM Mopars have the motor offset up to 3" to the passenger side. The 302 Ford that I swapped into my Mitsubishi pickup was offset 2 3/4" to miss the steering box.

These are the books you need to read.....
http://www.amazon.com/Engine-Swappin...7085681&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Petersens-Engi...7085859&sr=8-3
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-...7085859&sr=8-4
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-...7085859&sr=8-5
http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Engi...7085859&sr=8-7
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-of-En...7085859&sr=8-8

I think i read once that you want the rear end offset a little so the ujoints don't freeze up and vibrate, ever hear such a thing?

Originally Posted by 33toolman

I think i read once that you want the rear end offset a little so the ujoints don't freeze up and vibrate, ever hear such a thing?

Yep. On a street car, you want an offset between the pinion centerline and the crankshaft centerline. It doesn't have to be side to side (although it can be), but often it's up and down. The offset keeps the U-Joints "exercised." That's why street-driven cars the trans is usually pointed about 3 degrees down and the pinion 3 degrees up.

you can always cut the rearend and also use different length axles.... in theory you could easily move the engine over 12 inches.... problem is your car would tip over whenever you made a right turn