As you can see in my build thread, I decided to rip out the guts of my completed monster Miata and put it all in one of my SPEC race cars.

I am getting close to finishing up, but ran into something I did not run into on my last build. When I installed the transmission, it looks like it is a little off to the left, but it was similar in the other build so I was okay with that. After I installed the drive shaft, it was contacting the metal that surrounds the e-brake. I cut out the bottom of that metal to make clearance, but only have about 1/8 of an inch to spare. I am concerned it will hit under acceleration.

Trying to twist the engine has no effect because the transmission is pushed all the way over to the side. The mounting bolts on the bottom of the transmission are as far over as they can slide in the cross brace holes.

Has anyone else ran into this? I thought about attempting to elongate the holes in the crossbrace to get 1/2 in more.

Any thoughts?

Here is where I had to cut more room fo the shifter on the left than template calls for:

Here is a shot from underneath where I had to cut ebrake channel:

 

Do you have the cross member in backwards?

 

^^^^^^
This may be the issue.

-Jason

 

Did not realize there was a forward and backwards. This could have been the issue. I ended up dropping the crossmember and making the slots on it larger. I lifted the motor a bit to take the weight off and was able to adjust it over another 1/2 in. Looks way better now. Since holes were already drilled for mounting, I reinstalled it in the same orientation. I also added the bolt through the passenger side floorboard to stiffen it up.