Min. LH axle length? Limit susp. travel?

[Atilla the Fun]

Anybody have any helpful info on just how shotr the driver's side axle can be? I expect I'll need to limit the wheel travel, and take it easy when the surface i'm driving on isn't great, but I'm going to the F40, attached to an LM7 with a .25" adapter plate, and I want to move the whole thing farther to the driver's side to allow the truck intake to fit under the '85 decklid I installed on my '84, and to get the coil packs farther from the hinge box. This seems like the Left Hand axle will be very short.

[fieroguru]

The 96 Corsica LH axle is 1 1/4" shorter than the stock Fiero... shouldn't have any issues.
The old Z-kit and the LT1 installs shifted the engine about 2 3/8" to the driver side and I haven't heard many issues with them either.
There are a couple of LT1/F40 installs running around now and the F40 diff requires another inch of clearance, so they are 3 3/8" shorter.
The transverse V12 shifted the tranny about 4" to the LH side, but it is still in the R&D stage...

The big thing is to check for binding. Remove the spring from the strut, attach the suspension and install the axle. While turning the wheel hub by hand cycle the suspension from full droop to full compression. If it binds, you have a problem. When I finalized the side to side engine placement on my SBC, I did this and found the point of binding and backed off 1/4" to account for any bushing deflection... been issue free for 40K miles with many bottom outs (road contruction and detroit roads in general).

[Atilla the Fun]

3.375" should be a little more than I'm looking at. Thank you. I was not aware of that.

[fieroguru]

Another thing you can do (since you are making your adapter and mounts) is to position the axle tripods so the axles are as close to horizontal as possible at ride height. This will lessen the overall angle at max droop or compression and lessen any chance of issues with a short axle... On my SBC car the engine is lowered and the car is lowered, so the tripods are lower than the centerline of the wheels (by atleast and inch) and further forward (by another inch). This is part of the reason I am rotating the F40 with my adapter plate to raise the tripod centerline at the tranny.

[Atilla the Fun]

But not rotating it so far as to cause issues with the shift cables, right? And if I understand you correctly, you moved your engine forward?

[fieroguru]

Rotating the differential up will push the cables closer to the firewall, but should not cause any issues. The only unknown is the counter weight on the F40... what will having the diff raised 1" do to it?

I prefer to mock up the engine/tranny combo up on the cradle with slidable brackets. Then place the whole thing in the car and final adjust the placement front/rear and side to side for needed clearances and either marked or tack welded in place. Then out it comes again and mounts are made for this position. When I did this for the RamJet intake upgrade, I had to move the engine further forward so I could get 1/8" clearance from the throttle linkage to the 88 strut tower.

Another reason to rotate and raise the diff, the F40 axle location coming out of the tranny is already lower than the Isuzu (and I assume the Getrag and Muncie). Here is a mock up I did on the F40. The hole in the cardboard is the isuzu axle location based on the tranny bellhousing bolts.

[Atilla the Fun]

You do have good methods, and I appreciate the chance to learn. Thanks.