Engine, trans & transfer 3/4" too far back?

1996 4.0, standard transmission. ~4" of lift. 1.25" TC support drop installed.

First things first: The old engine sat about a half inch back on the mounts after dropping the TC, but I had NO noise and it felt OK throughout the mild articulation I do with it.

So... i just swapped in a new motor (long story) and have it all back together and running fine.

Now the new engine, old transmission, and old tranfer case are all about 3/4 of an inch too far back. This is causing a new unhappy noise from my rear joints (it did not make noise before the engine swap). And I'm worried that it is cramming the splines at the TC all the way in.

Is there a way to get the whole thing shoved back forward? That mount on the TC crossmember is rubber, so it can't really apply the pressure forward, but how else?

Input please!

Did you replace both engine mounts when you did the engine swap? Did you replace the transmission mount? How easy did your cross member line up with your transmission mount?

If it lined up real easy then I don't think the engine or transmission moved any real amount. If it had moved 3/4" back those holes on the mount would not be close to lining up. Need a little more information about the engine swap (what years etc..)

Donor XJ engine is a '97 , formerly mated to an auto tranny.

Used the '97 block, head, intake manifold and distributor housing, but all else was swapped over from the '96 (brackets, sensors, water pump, alternator, PS pump, A/C compressor, fuel rail, injectors, etc etc). New bearing to match up w/ the standard transmission in mine.

The swap went really well, no hiccups except that the sender for the temp idiot light has no bore in the '97 head, I've moved it to the radiator hose w/ a spliced-in fitting.

Both engine mounts are new. TC mount is the orig., as the trans and TC were never pulled out of the body. Had to un-bolt the TC mount from the crossmember and bring it forward a bit when mating the engine to the tranny in order to get the spline to engage and get the bolts started.

It required a major shove AFT (backwards) to get the tranny mount bolts into the crossmember, which is why I'm baffled by this. The block is the same length, and I never removed the mount from the TC, only unbolted it from the crossmember!

So here's why its "3/4 too far aft"-
1) The engine mount-arms are nearly touching the body-side mounts at the back.
2) The small indented reciever for the transfer case linkage is 3/4 aft of where it aught to be to line up w/ the body-side pivot point, so right now the linkage must work w/out that TC pivot point.
3) The spline only shows for about 3/4 inch when there's no load on the drivetrain. (I think it should be like 1-1/2 inch, right?)
4) I really had to shove it aft hard to get the bolts to drop into the holes on the TC mount. (Big pry-bar & grunting...)

Still stuck....

Damn. I don't know why it would be or have mounted in to be longer. Maybe someone else can chime in.

I'm thinking that maybe this is mostly to do with the crossmember drop and little or nothing to do with the engine swap.
I've read a bunch of threads here that discuss the shifter binding due to a aft movement after a TC drop, but have not found anyone talking about so large a shift back or the output spline issues.

Anyways, input still needed here - anyone got ideas?