<VV> Dummy Drivetrain Advice for Transport

[Darrin Hartzler]

I am buying a car that is several states away and the current owner wants 
to pull the drivetrain before selling the car.  He does not have a dummy 
drivetrain available to install in the car so that a shipping company 
could collect the car (which is eseentially a shell) and bring it to me 
here in Maryland.   He has offered to have the person who pulls the 
drivetrain install whatever device or combination of parts that I can come 
up with that will fill the bill.  Discussed ideas with Tim Mahler and he 
had a few...wanted to see what the experience here is.

I do have an empty differential case that I could ship to the seller for 
his mechanic to attach the lower control arms to for shipping, but I do 
not know if a case by itself, without the support of a transmission 
connected to the front crossbar, would be sufficient.   It would have to 
be wired in place and would likely be a much for an average shipping 
company to deal with.   Please let me know if any of you have used just a 
diff. case in such a situation and if there were any negatives.   I am 
woried that if it is wired up to the cowl area any violence in shipping 
would cause damage to the cowl area which is currently pristine.

Any other ideas of ways to dummy up a drivetrain or make a car without a 
powerpak suitable for shipping would be appreciated.   Please keep in mind 
that whatever I come up with has to be shipped 600 miles, so weight is 
also a concern....if it were not I would just ship a whole drivetrain out 
to him.  Tim had a cut half shaft with a bar welded to make it the right 
length to span between the two wheels.   I could do something like that 
but it would be heavy and oversized to ship...not ideal.

Final option, if anybody in the Springfield, Ill. area has a dummy 
drivetrain or even a real drivetrain that they would let go for a good 
price, that could be an option if I could figure out how to get it to the 
right place at the right time.

Thanks,

Darrin Hartzler
Bethesda, MD
Corsa/No. Virginia Corvairs