[Yukon Jack]

Guys, I woke up early again today and hit the shop with grand visions of progress. Did get a bit done but came to the conclusion that I'm probably not going to be able to ditch the body lift after all. After getting the engine centered up and looking at the frame and firewall issue it's looking pretty impossible.

The motor is going to have to move forward more than 3" to fix my firewall clearance issue. Moving the motor forward 3" will put the clutch fan within 1/4" of the radiator. Looks like I have a long water pump but I'm thinking switching to a short water pump and then finding all the necessary pulley's would be a major pain - I'm not even sure I could find the right pulleys since the motor and accessories are all 1989 vintage.

Plus, if I did get the engine forward 3" I'm afraid the frame would take alot of clearancing to clear the headers. Probably would need to cut between 3/8" and 1/2" to get them to clear. Using stock manifolds won't work as the stock pair I had originally would have taken major clearancing to work even in the present location.

Finally, moving the motor forward 3" or more would make the front driveshaft angle terrible.

I'd also have cut out and replace my exhaust under the cab and change back from a low hump to a high hump and also replace the basically new carpet with a high hump carpet.

All those things just add up to me thinking I need to just forget about removing the body lift - If I do that I can just get the transfer case replaced and get back on the road.

If anyone has any suggestions or comments, I'm all ears, but pretty frustrated at this point.