Back of Shaker Sitting Low

[Mopar_Mudder]

I am building a 71 Hemi Cuda clone. Finally at the stage of final assembly and have all the shaker stuff on. But to me the shaker is sitting pretty low in the back. The weather strip doesn't even tuch the hood, you can see the voltage regulator in the picture I took. Now everything is aftermarket: Motor, shaker, tranny, everything. But I am guessing it is not suppose to sit this low in the back?

My first guess is that the tranny, TKO-500, is sitting lower then a stock tranny to fit in the tunnel. I can jack the tranny up about 1/2" which really helps the shaker, but then it is hitting the floor hump.

My best thought is to make new rings that go bettween the base plate and carbs. Cut off the rings on the base now and weld in new ones so I can raise the back of the base plate up. Any other ideas?


 

 

 

[Chryco Psycho]

I assume you have the intake on the right way ?
 trans being too low makes sense to me too

[Mopar_Mudder]

I assume you have the intake on the right way ?
 trans being too low makes sense to me too

ahhhh, yes it is on the right way. I don't think it is even possible to reverse it, never had a reason to try   

The TKO tranny might lower the mount to allow the tranny to fit in the tunnel. this would tip the back of the engine down causing my issue. I would need someone to give me a measurement from the center of the out put shaft of the tranny to the tunnel floor on a stock 4 speed car to compare. Either way I have to come up with a fix, I don't like the way it looks

[Chryco Psycho]

I believe both the 440 & Hemi intakes are reversable , I saw the same problem on a 440 once , the intake was onbackwards LOL

[Mopar_Mudder]

Just wanted to update that after doing some research I found that the TKO kit DOES NOT keep the engine in its factory 3deg down angle tip, it is more like 4-1/2 deg, this makes the shaker sit low in the back and not look right. I was able to get the rear of the tranny up 1" higher. Had to recut the tunnel, after being all painted  and cut an 1" out of the tranny bracket that comes with the kit. Still not exactly as high as factory but closer. I need to get the rear of the shaker up another 1/4", think I can do that by tweaking the base plate.

Bottom line seams to be if you have a shaker car you need to mod the TKO kits a lot to get things to work, wish they would give that info ahead of time.......

[Haddixj]

I will be crossing this bridge at some point, do you have pics of how you modified the cross member and tunnel? how off was the template that they sent you.

[Mopar_Mudder]

I will be crossing this bridge at some point, do you have pics of how you modified the cross member and tunnel? how off was the template that they sent you.

I didn't use the template or the patch panel at all, found it better just to go it on my own. I will get a picture of the crossmember and post it. Basically you need to get the transmission as high as possible befor it hits the cross frame support that is under the floor. then make the tunnel fit from their. If the car was not painted and I will still in the building process I probably would have modified that cross frame support to gain a little more even.

[anlauto]

Nobody ever asked what K Frame or mounts you were using....

[Mopar_Mudder]

It is a converted K-Frame done by Mega Parts and stock repop motor mounts. Not using any sort of convertion mount to a standard K-Frame.

[erat340]

Can we see a pic of how the engine sits in the bay without the shaker on?

[mopardave]

Brent,
we have the TKO behind our hemi, but we did do the weld in plate, it doesnt seam like much but the 1/4 or 1/2  will make a difference , Also did your TKO kit come with the aluminum shim spacers? these are in different thicknesses and are for the tail shaft height, use these instead of cutting the rear crossmember

[Mopar_Mudder]

Brent,
we have the TKO behind our hemi, but we did do the weld in plate, it doesnt seam like much but the 1/4 or 1/2  will make a difference , Also did your TKO kit come with the aluminum shim spacers? these are in different thicknesses and are for the tail shaft height, use these instead of cutting the rear crossmember

Didn't get any spacers with mine. I originally was going to just make a 1" spacer to go between the crossmember and tranny mount. But when the tranny cross memebr was made it was not made square and actually the transmission was setting 1/4" off center to the drivers side. Also the crossmember hung below the sub frame connectors making it the lowest point on the car. I was able to fix both of thoose by cutting it up.

My tunnel is for sure up higher then yours. The picture you posted does look about exactly like it did the first time I modified it using all the parts as they came with the kit. The secound round I had to raise the entire tunnel, including the drivers side.

Now just want to point out that everything is after market in this car, block, heads, intake, complete shaker system, tranny, everything. So alot of little things could add up to problems.

I will post some pictures shortly.

[daveh]

I'm doing the conversion to a shaker with a new TKO 600.  But I am installing a 340 small block I wonder if I will have the same issues?  Any thoughts?

Dave

[Mopar_Mudder]

I'm doing the conversion to a shaker with a new TKO 600.  But I am installing a 340 small block I wonder if I will have the same issues?  Any thoughts?

Dave

I would think so. What you want to look for is the factory had a 3deg down angle on the motor and tranny. This can be checked on the back of the block, tail shaft, oil pan mounting surface. Mine with what was supplied with the kit was a little over 4deg down. After my mods I got it to about 3-1/4 deg.

[Mopar_Mudder]

Ok here is a bunch of pictures. Some are not the greatest and sorry about the dust.

As you can see the center of the tail shaft was darn near level with the inner two bolts that hold the crossmember on, it was just 1/8" above them, after the mod I am 1-5/8" above them (have so double check that as that is what I had doing a mock up before actually cutting the crossmember)

I got this info from a member at Moparts, but they don't seem to add up, would be nice if someone here could measure a stock car

I measured my 71 Challenger, factory 4spd set up, all factory parts,...measuring from the output shaft centerline at the tailshaft to the top of the tranny sheetmetal hump (the hump center in the car is the same, 4spd or auto, as this is part of the original floor that is not cut for a 4 spd hump, factory or not) is approx 3 1/2"...now sheetmetal can vary between vehicles, so I also measured from the inboard transmission crossmember bolt, up to the tailshaft/output centerline, this is approx 3"

You can also see that I had to replace of the bolts that hold the shifter bracket on with a flat head reccessed one. You can see where the normal bolt was scraping the paint off the frame.

It is hard to take a picture of the difference in the bubble, but it did help ALOT, I still need to gain about 1/4" in the back. Also before the mod the fan was very close to hitting the top of the readiator shroud, now I have some cleanace.

The tunnel is a little rough looking I know, not what I wanted but I wanted to do as little as possible to disturbing the pain job. Also I am pretty shure I am going to have to mod the console because it is going to be hitting the tunnel on the drives side holding it up. So I am going to have to trim some off the bottom of the plastic.