It was a busy week at work so the garage was silent all week, but got a little more accomplished today. I wanted to know for sure what my offset was going to be on my axles, so I re-installed the suspension and used a jack to compress it to ride height. I used a T-square clamped to the knuckle to extend the axle center line back to the transmission, the offset comes in at 2.5". I figured out the approximate pivot points of the axle shaft in the joint and measured the length for the axle. The right side comes in at 13" long, figure that into the 2.5" offset and you get an 11 deg C/V joint angle. The left side axle is 18" long which gives a 7.5 deg C/V angle. I'm thinking the 11 deg angle on the rt side is going to be ok, the front C/V joints on my 1 ton Chevy pickup run at about an 8 deg angle, and they have 216,000 miles on them.





I also wanted to know the weight of the 2.8 eng/trans as well as the 3.5 eng/trans. I was able to borrow a hanging scale from a neighbor who works for a crane outfit. Both engines weigh in at just a little bit over 550 pounds. So even though the Chrysler engine is larger than the 2.8, the all aluminum construction evens things out.

Got the engine back out of the car now and started working on alternator and A/C mounting. I'll have some pics of that soon.

[This message has been edited by seajai (edited 09-28-2023).]

Finally got my alternator mount done.

The factory alt mounting was up high on the timing cover, but that spot was too tight to the firewall for me to leave it there.



This is a pic of the area where the factory P/S pump lived. I removed the bracket and installed a stud in the lower mounting hole. I also had to install an elbow for the oil pressure switch to make room for the alt in its new home.



A pic of the alternator in its new location.



The problem here is the factory belt was tensioned by means of an adjustable pulley on a bracket but I don't have room for one. So I need to make the alt adjustable. Normally the pivot point of the alt is the double leg side and the adjustable side is the single leg. I had to do that backwards because the battery stud would have hit the oil filter the other way. Here is a pic of my adjuster assembly:



The other issue with this setup is, as the alt is pulled up to tension the belt, it wants to deflect outward. This means I had to make a bracket to support the alt and keep it in line.



Luckily I had a couple of engine mount bracket bolts down low. I removed the factory bolts and installed a couple of studs I had left over from a 3800 Regal project. (It pays to save bolts)



So here is a pic of the alt with the adjuster bracket installed.



Now with the alt in place, I needed a new drive belt. I used an old belt, cut it and wrapped it around the pulleys, and bolted it back together in its new length. I took that to my local O'Reilly's and measured it on the belt tool. After a bit of trial and error, I had my new Gates 6 rib belt.



Here is the finished product in place and my new belt installed . I am able to tension the belt from underneath with a 3/4" socket.

[This message has been edited by seajai (edited 09-28-2023).]