More tubes have now been tacked in though progress is a little slower than I hoped due to weather being usually cool. Once it warms up a bit I'll be spending a lot more time in the garage. Here you can see the engine and transmission sitting roughly in place. I think I'll need to lower the engine another inch, move some tubes around a bit, and then fabricate the engine mounts.
The engine is spaced 1/2" to the passenger's side due to the rear differential being offset 1" to the same side. I'm hoping to minimize the drive shaft angle: a little angle is beneficial for keeping the U-joints properly lubed, but too much causes stress.
The design work and planning gets a lot easier when you can use a CAD program. Luckily my previous job taught me how to use AutoCAD. Unfortunately I do not have my own copy, so I had to take a little time to learn LibreCAD which is an open source free CAD program.
Here I mocked up the rear end borrowing some ideas from Matt Rodger's car as detailed on the LocostUSA forum. I also took some measurements on the current transmission output shaft and differential input shaft. Once I get the engine and transmission mounts completed (and moving tubes around a little) I'll be working on the back end of the car. At least the cool weather gave me a chance to iron out some ideas and develop some plans!
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