Trans is sitting on its mount mount bolted into the old A4LD holes all nice and pretty.
Much slimmer than an automatic.
Ok, that is secure, lets get the last two bellhousing bolts in but wait...
Remove crossmember and let the trans down...
Then poke the crossmember back in.
Ok feeling brave now, time for the t-case.
I got it in there lined up and everything was looking great but it wouldn't go the last little bit. Discovered the countershaft pin was hitting the transmission case. So I had to back the t-case off and hacksaw the corner off the transmission. Kinda almost seems like this transmission and t-case were never intended to go together by now doesn't it?
The nut between the input and front output is on the countershaft pin.
The bottom left (drivers side) corner of the transmission is what is hitting.
The factory mounting was just round and offered no such interference.
So with a liberal application of a hacksaw (that I really need to remember to get a new blade for) that corner is gone. Not sure if that counts as cutting corners or not...
And IT IS IN!!
I need to work on where it mounts to the frame rail, mainly get a piece of angle iron I think and get the bushings for it. It is hanging from a single 3/8" bolt at the moment with the jack under it helping a little bit.
Its late, I probably should be heading in but dang that 4wd lever boss looks really nicely placed...
Heck ya! Now I need to figure out how to get two levers to do that... (can also see better how the transmission fits around that countershaft pin/nut)
I had a third gen Explorer driveshaft in my parts cache... and it is too short. I don't think my driveline is any shorter than it was with the little C5/1350. The compact 205 is making up for the longer M5R2.