96 Ram 1500 2WD, I have the 2 piece linkage, with the mid ship bearing in the middle.
My tranny seems to be cocked at quite an angle, just wondering if anyone can verify that this is the way its supposed to be.
Some guy told me yeah, its supposed to be that way, but I am not all that confident in his opinion.

The tranny is supported, of course, by the cross frame mount, and sits atop a rubber bushing.
It is about 4 inches off center of this bushing [towards the passenger side], in effect only using less than half of it.
This offset means that the linkage does not run straight to the rear differential, as one might expect, but at an angle, I can hardly believe that this is correct.

Anyone ?
Can submit some pics if necessary.

 

The tail shaft of the tranny should be lined up with the yoke on the rear end,as good as you can tell by eye. And the tranny should not be 4 inches of center of the tranny mount. Maybe you should take some pics and post them to give us a better idea of what you are looking at.

 

Here are some pics, difficult to gain perspective 2nd hand, I know.

This one from the side, under driver side, showing how far off centered it is from the mount



Straight on shot



This one shows some kind of support bracket which attached tranny to exhaust.
This is a new exhaust, but old one was the same.
Hard to imagine the tranny being in any other position with this bracket in place



This one attempts to show the angle at which the rear is forced to connect at, linkage right next to the shiny new exhaust, and the bulge of rear differential visible.
If, as you say, the rear yoke and tranny should be eyeball lined up at least, this one is hardly even in the ballpark.
There must be at least an 8-12 degree offset here.

 

That's not right. I believe you should have two bolts coming up through the middle of that mount to keep it centered and in place.

 

Like Aubrey said, that is totally not right. You need a new tranny mount. And whatever friend or mechanic you know that said it's normal, you can tell him he's a f'n moron! The steel plate on top has come completely separated from the rubber. This waht the mount should look like.

http://info.rockauto.com/getimage/ge...nchor/2852.jpg The pic is showing the mount upside down for some reason, but that's it.

 

Dammit, why do I listen to these drunk backyard mechanics about **** like this ?
So apparently then, the support bolts have been sheared off ?
The heads are still in the bottom, hard to imagine the bolts themselves still being intact with an offset like that.

I've been driving it for months like this, in fact since late last summer, when I first noticed it and asked that guy about it.
Lately I have been having a bad vibration from 30 to 34 mph, when the wobble dies and everything seems fine.
Thought at first I busted a tire belt, but more likely its 1 or more Ujoints trying to warn me the tranny is about to spin apart from being forced to operate in this unnatural position.
Damn.

Can anyone verify, against their own setup, the placement of that exhaust support bracket that bolts to the trans ?

 

NO, the rubber in between is broken in two. If you look at the pic I provided (which is upside down like I stated)you will see two studs (which go through the frame support).

 

I see what your saying.
So what is it that keeps the tranny in place, if it just basically rests on this bushing ?

Edit: Ok I can see the metal plate is attached to the bushing, so thats all that keeps this tranny from going whatever way if pleases ,,, The bond between this plate and the rubber ?

 

Yep the plate is fused to the rubber insulator bushing normally. In your case it sheared off the rubber some how. the exhaust bracket is normally held on by that sutd however it looks like whoever installed the exhaust cut down the metal hanger to fit your current setup so you will probably have to get a new metal hanger welded to your exhaust pipe.

 

Well yeah, I'll probably just use a sawzall to cut that bracket off, don't see it doing any good for the tranny or exhaust in that spot - I might have to rig up some additional sideways support for that trans too, after new mount is installed.
The torque seems to compel the rear of the tranny towards the passenger side, and that mount alone doesn't seem equal to the task of restraining it, although apparently is was designed to do just that.