[studeclunker]

Originally Posted by mr48chev

The what you called a clamshell was a safety thing as it kept the engine from rising off a broken motor mount. Some of us older guys did experience a broken motor mount that let the left side of the engine lift and cause the throttle rods to stick wide open. That called for a fast reach for the key to shut it off. I had that happen on the first 62 Impala I had in the early 70's.

Many brands had that problem. With Studebakers, the engine mount would break and slam the engine against the firewall, thereby breaking the Distributor cap and Rotor. I fixed that problem by using the rubber engine mounts from a Land Rover.