Transmission/transfer Case Crossmember Frame Mounting Question

The previous owner of my Jeep had an encounter with a large rock against the transmission / transfer case crossmember and bent the hell out of it, so I am replacing it with a new one that was sitting unused in the parts bin I inherited. He/she had the original one slung about 3" below the frame with a sad looking pile of pieces of different sized steel plate between it and the frame on both sides:



The Jeep had a set of larger spring shackles, but had stock springs. I have installed a new set of Rough Country 2.5" lift kit springs, and Warrior #319 1/2" shackles.

Will I be able to mount the new crossmember directly to the frame, or do I need to use some box tube to hang it lower? If it mounts to the frame, it does bolt up from below, correct? Pretty sure this makes more sense than it sitting inside the frame on top of the lower part of the frame channel? Seems like it won't fit in this way.

To my knowledge, the driveshafts that I just refurbished and rebuilt are stock - will these work?

 

Here's a stock 74 Trans x-member, I have no idea of the drop, it got cut up T15 Trans

 

You can attempt to mount it direct to frame and check your angles. If the angles look good but you get vibrations you may just need new U-joints. Steeper angles do wear out u-joints quicker and it is not uncommon to see a drop xmember when all that is often required is a refresh of the universals. Also make sure the slip don't have side to side play.

 

Thanks for this info and pic! So I guess that means that these four, which I fished out from the pile of plates on each stack are the OEM ones? They measure about .25” each.

 

ALL the V6 jeeps I have seen came with the 2 x .250" spacers this includes T-86 and T-14. Take them out at your own risk.

 

I just realized I too had these on either side! During the T18 swap I was able to tuck things up better and all yoke to yoke u-joint angles are nice and smooth. Of course I had full control moving my tcase mount around when fabricating so I don't know if you can just pop them out from a stock setup without recourse.

 

IIRC, the spacers were less for driveshaft angles and more for a gap between the t-case and floor.

 

Makes sense. I had to make a whole new floor/tunnel anyway so things shifted.