The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop crossmember in my way.

As I try to push my 350/350 turbo back and into place in my 53 1/2 ton, it jams.It seems I can't push the mill the final 6" to sit in the right place. I look and find I have a crossmember riveted to the frame that is too high stopping it from going any farther. There is also another crossmember right at the tailshaft which I assume is where a mount goes for the rear of the original 3 speed crashbox.I'm going to cut the more forward one out, do I need to alter it and put it back in for strength? And what about the back one ,what's the best thing to do with it?
Thanks fellow humans

Your truck should have had three cross members from the rad to back of cab. The first one is where the orginal front engine mount was attached. The second one is where the rear engine mounts/bell housing was attached. The next one should be at the back edge of the cab. There never was a mount for your tranny, as it was attached to the back side of the bell housing. The motor was 3 pt mount from front to back. They make kits for mounting a V-8 in these trucks, that make use of the V-8 side mounts and offer you a newer style rear mount. I wouldnt just start hacking away at the cross members as they are the only thing that holds the frame rails parallel to each other. Take a look in the link area here and pick a vendor that offers you a kit, then see what parts you need to remove.

So what did you do to get any clearance to put a V8 into your AD truck Wrench Fetcher?

He's saying that you need to put a cross member under your tailshaft housing, which comes in a kit, and you could put a cross member under your side engine mounts, which also comes in a kit, to keep the rigidity of your frame. Then the bell housing cross member wouldn't be needed,
Scott

Thanks Scott, so the stock crossmember definately has to come out so the transmition has clearance. Then buy a kit or make my own new crossmember is the way to go?And the rear one has to come out as well?That's what I needed to know before hacking them out.As soon as I get more accetalene, thats the next project. Thanks again Guys.I'll make what ever brackets and mounts I need at work and install them when I get home. So far I've prefabbed all the 30 or so body panels and changed over my rear end to a 76 olds and made the brackets to move my steering box 1 3/4" out. All this with tips and ideas from people around me and you guys on this forum.Thanks for your time, and I'll answer any questions that I can help with on the stuff I've already done.
Lothar

Keep in mind that there other things attached to the same rivits as the cross member. Some of them you have to keep. You would be better off to use a grinder to remove the rivit heads and then punch them out.

I installed a 283/350 into my 59 and I ordered motor and tranny crossmembers from Chevy Duty. There not very expensive and they worked great.

http://www.chassisengineeringinc.com/

I was able to get mounts for engine, tranny and IFS from them for my 46. We did an unconventional build and no problems with their stuff. We did need to make a custom steering mount and use universals to mate the stock steering wheel and column to the Pacer IFS. The engine is a 302 from a 69 Montego and the c4 tranny was installed with the 9" ford rear. We just had to shorten the driveshaft.