5mt crossmember schematic

[SoCoNoHa]

So the foremost section of the driveshaft, just ahead of the U joint, is longer on my 99 LGT driveshaft than my SVX shaft. Just slightly. I'll grab a pic tomorrow evening.

Also, it's not the snout bottoming out in the trans as I previously thought, it's the trans bottoming out in the dust-shield-cup thing at the head of the driveshaft. I ground away the two tack welds holding it in place and it came off with a little bit of hammering.

And it's CLOSE. I'm going to grind down a wee bit of the base of the snout and report back.

Anyway, I already drove it. It was awesome. It was still smooth with the welded mount, it felt extremely solid and nice in fact, but the gear whine is rather loud. I need new exhaust gaskets before I can say if I can live with it. Plus it could just be the trans on driveshaft friction. But without the slushbox soaking up torque this car moves pretty well, and I haven't even disabled torque control. And right when I got on it, it minced the accessory belt. POWAAAHHH!

The shifter stood up out of the center console a little to high, so I chopped the top half of the threaded tip of the shifter and ground away the ring to allow the knob to sit very low. Worked a treat. DIY short shifter BOOM! I may yet go lower...