[Guest]

OK....Last night I was all sorts of excited looking at my new 86 CJ7 frame, nicely painted in Hammerite, and my old 76 CJ7 skid plate, also nicely painted in Hammerite. I was getting kinda jumpy…so I said what the hell….and test fitted the skid plate…

"Hmmm…that’s odd", I said to my self…it’s too big???? I then looked at my old frame and said "$H!T"…..my 76 CJ7 frame has the bolds for the skid plate much further back then my new 86 CJ7 frame.


My idea is to drill and tap a few holes and problem solved???? Right??? My question is…will this hold the Trany, and X-fer case up without problems…I just want to make sure it will hold up and be strong enough for it…

Let me know if you’ve had this problem,
Tucker

PS – is there anything else I should watch out for????

 

[Guest]

I did the opposite; I put the late skid plate on my 76 frame after a tranny/Xcase swap, and here's one way to do it. Jack your skid plate up and double check for straightness, Mark where the holes line up on the frame and drill the frame slightly larger than the bolts to be used, I used 3/8". Now take some plate stock about 1/8x1x2" and drill in the center with the same bit. Now weld or braze the nuts to the plate stock over the hole. I usu. put a bolt with anti-seize in the nut while welding to protect the threads. Now add a piece of thin welding rod or coat hanger lengthwise. This will allow you to fish the plates into the frame and position over the holes. Once again anti seize is a good idea if you want to avoid breaking the welded nuts loose when disassembling. It works. Good luck.

76 CJ5,2.5" lift/Rancho 9000's,258/T-177/D300,HEI,Offy,Locked F&R

 

[Guest]

I had the same problem replacing my 79 frame with an 84 frame. There were only 2 holes in the frame far enough back to use and they didn't line up with the holes in the skid plate. What I did was after the engine was mounted I attached the transmission to it and then attached the skid plate to the tranny. I then raised the skid plate to meet frame and drilled holes to match with the two holes it covered in the frame. I then drilled and tapped holes in the frame to match the holes that were already on the skidplate and bolted it up. This sounds like what you have in mind. I just finished up my frame swap Saturday so the Jeep has only been on the road for 3 days but so far so good. If it shows signs of not holding up I'm going to just drill the tapped holes on up through the top of the frame and use bolts just long enough to bolt the skidplate on. I just couldn't get inside of my frame to do anything more creative. Good luck with your project.

 

[Guest]

Can't you just use a '86 crossmember? What trany and t-case are you running?

 

[Guest]

I've got a 304 with a TH400 behind it and the Q-Trac on that...I don't think the crossmember would work for this combo...but I may be wrong....I'm not sure how the x-member would fit into this problem...

Tucker