I think I have the wrong Tranny crossmember?

[Neimough]

Hey guys I've got an 82 K5 I set a 700r4 and an NP208 T-case in with stock suspension. I've never had a front drive shaft in it and I just acquired 1 but after determining it was 2" too long I also found out that there's pretty much no clearance for it to fit. Googling I'm seeing all kinds of different crossmembers for K5's that look nothing like mine. I thought of dropping it with 1" spacers but without a dip in the crossmember I don't think that will help much. Can someone point please me in the right direction of what to do with this?

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This is a shot taken looking out from my diff yoke.

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[Big Chip]

I like your Chitty Chitty Bang Bang exhaust.

 

[dvdswan]

There are a couple of different ones I know for sure. I'm sure they were based on trany/tcase setups.

Best bet is to hit up the local junkyard and look for a similar set up.

 

[bucket]

Yours looks to be installed backwards.

That may or may not be the original crossmember. By '82 it should have had the extra mounting holes for the 208-specific skid plate, but that one still is the correct general shape. The early 208 mount setups left very little room for the front driveshaft.

 

[Neimough]

I like your Chitty Chitty Bang Bang exhaust.

Lol I know it's pretty ghetto atm. The truck still isn't street ready yet and I had no exhaust at all which makes it kinda hard to adjust valve lash by ear with open collectors in a valley!

 

[Neimough]

Yours looks to be installed backwards.

That may or may not be the original crossmember. By '82 it should have had the extra mounting holes for the 208-specific skid plate, but that one still is the correct general shape. The early 208 mount setups left very little room for the front driveshaft.

I hadn't thought of it being backwards, could explain a few things even though it bolted up right nice. I salvaged this as a rolling chassis from a junk yard years ago and it had no driveline or crossmember in it originally.

 

[84 M1008]

Yup, it's in backwards.

 

[Neimough]

I crawled back under her and snagged some pics of the driver's side of that crossmember and it does have a dip but only in the front like it's tapered for a left hand diff. I didn't think gm had any left hand front diffs.

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[84 M1008]

The GMT400 series trucks had a driver's side transfer case drop because of the fixed front differential and the horrible IFS. So you put it in backwards, no big deal. As said, there is very little clarence between the front driveshaft and the crossmember.

 

[Neimough]

I'll get back up under it in a few days and flip it around. I think I may add some spacers at the same time to help that clearance a bit. Eventually I do plan on having a 6" suspension lift as well since the wife says she won't mind it that high.

Does anyone roughly know around how far out a front slip joint will pull out between stock and a 6" lift? Right now the drive shaft I have is actually 2" too long but has 3.5" of movement before the splines show. It's a standard front drive shaft with u-joints on both ends. I've got another shaft but it's got the round bolt up pattern and a double cardan joint which would be the right length for stock I would just need to knock off the round end to set the u-joint into the yoke from the 208. If that would even work.

 

[bucket]

Generally, stock front shafts are ok up to around a 4" lift. But that can vary a bit based on trans/t-case combos, yoke styles, spring rate, etc.