Cross Member-Engine and Trans Question

[Pritchard1970]

I have 62 pickup with torsion bars...Do I just remove them when and their rear support brackets when I do this converison....any tips?....I will be using a 76 6-lug converison disc crossmember.....Should I replace the whole crossmember to retain the 76 engine mounts for the V8 conversion or just put the control arms and spindles on my truck like many of the other conversions have done ....Also any tips on a transmission crossmember to covert from a 3 on the tree tranny to a Th350 tranny? I have both the original and the th350 one out of the 76 pulled....thanks for the reply guys and the lowered pics look great

[Chevyboy1962]

I swapped engine & trans on my '62 last July.
I'm now running a 350 & TH350 (short tail shaft). Since I have the 1 piece driveline, it slid right into place, without modifying the driveline.

I first pulled the old unit out as a whole unit, make sure you have the fron engine mount unbolted as well as the 2 rear mounts on the crossmember. The 2 rear mounts has a metal washer bent on one side to prevent teh nuts from backing off, make sure these are flattened out before attempting to take them off.

To make the wiring connections on the engine easy, just unplug the wire harness a the firewall, and after the egnie is removed, put a piece of masking tape on each wire, with a short discription to where they go. this will make it alot easier on you when rewiring in the new engine.

On the rear trans mount for the automatic, you'll have to fabricate one. BUT since you're installing a '76 crossmember in place of the '62 torsion IFS, you can use a '63-'72 truck automatic crossmember. Since I had to leave the torsion IFS in my truck, I had a heck of a time fabricating mine.

DO NOT take apart the torsion bar setup in pieces, it is under ALOT of pressure. You'll want to unbolt the whole unit, and roll it out. I think these's 6-8 bolts holding it in place. When installing the '76 IFS, you'll have to drill a few holes in the frame rails, but otherwise it is a bolt in. As for the engine towers from the '76, I'd use them, you'll have to drill a few hole on either frame rail to bolt them on, I highly recommend using the side mount engine mounts for reliability reasons.

As for the crossmember where the manual trans mounts to, cut it out, this will be right where the torque converter is. I used a saws-all, 1 cut right in the middle, and 1 cut on either far end up against the frame rails. Once the blade stopped at the bottom before breaking through, there is another piece of metal undernieth. So I cut more of the inner part out, and used an 8 pound sledge on the 2 stubs hitting them upwards & downwards a few good times, and they fell off.
David

[Pritchard1970]

Thanks for the feed back....since I have both the 76 crossmember and 62 original one I might just cut and weld one out of two that will fit for my application...Any other tips