No Transmission cross member

[Lobo'74]

I've had my '67 for four years and worked slowly but steadily to improve it. PO was a "mature" guy (thats a nice way of saying mid 40's and up) and had been building hot rod engines for decades. He then found a body to put 'em in, cleaned it up, dropped in the engine, drove it, sold it and went on th the next project.

Engine is GREAT. Bored .30 over, Sportsman II heads 72cc chambers, stainless steel valves w/ 2.02 intake and 1.6 exhaust, heavduty valve springs, Crane double roller rocker arms, double roller timing chain, Melling HVHP oil pump, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake manifold, Edelbrock 750 cfm 4 barrell, etc, etc. He did a great job on the engine but I keep finding where corners were cut on the body.

Here is the latest . . .

After 4 years the stock Saginaw 3 speed (from the '79 C10 donor of the 4 bolt main 350 that was rebuilt) and clutch went bad. I have in hand a Saginaw 4 speed (rebuilt) to go in it. Same exact case so it should be a simple swap out and new clutch. I was under the truck looking at the antique floor 3 speed (a true hot rod antique Fenton shifter) to find the mounting points to see which Hurst Comp shifter to put in. I noticed that the flat pad on the bottom of my transmission was hanging in the breeze, unlike the part that the Hurst instruction sheet showed as attaching to the transmission with two studs pointing down to go through the transmission cross member. I looked VERY closely and realized that I have NO TRANSMISSION SUPPORT CROSSMEMBER. The tranny is bolted to the bell housing but I see no horizontal support of any type. Hmmmmmmm. Could that be why the clutch and tranny need to be replaced at the four year point? (LOL)

OK, who (if anybody) sells these, and how fast can we get it to central Virginia? I believe it is the stock item shown in the factory assembly manual as the "SUPPORT - TRANS (PS200 W/M35)"

No local (or close) "salvage yards" have any 67-72 trucks to harvest from.

[Lobo'74]

By the way, the PO was younger than I am . . . so I'm in the "mature" group too. Didn't want any miscommunication ;-)

[Palf70Step]

They weren't suppose to have the cross members we are use to now days. The cross member is the bellhousing. The bellhousing mounts to the frame.

Most folks if the want a cross member, use one from an automatic truck. Remeber however, the 3-epseed does not have a place to mount it on a rear cross member (from what I remember).

[fastom]

I removed a cross member from my 68 when I tore it apart. It had a four speed floor shift trans in it. I installed an ECE auto trans cross member in it's place.

I don't remember the mounting location because it's different than the auto but it was there.

[Belairbob]

Just as Bill said, I have a 3 speed and the crossmember goes under the bellhousing. Also there are 4 bolts for the trans to bell housing join. The upper 2 bolts go thru the trans ears into the bell housing. The 2 lower bolts go thru the bell housing and into the trans. Does your 4speed have threads in the lower trans ears?
bob

[Lobo'74]

I will have to look at the ears on the "new" tranny.

I have a machined flat pad on the underside of the 3 speed that the Hurst install instructions show a chevy part attaching to. The part has two threaded studs protruding down that match the two holes in the center of the transmission support shown in the Chevrolet assembly manual. I have yet to see the new tranny (had it delivered to the shop I'll be using) to verify it has the same flat attach point.

[57sailplane]

i ran a Muncie for years with the stock 4 speed crossmeber. the stock cross meber bolts to the bell housing. not to the tranny. the tranny just hangs just like yours did. of course your newer tranny had a differant crossmeber originally.. just my 2 cents

[lilred67]

the '67-72's with standard tranny's used a cast iron bell housing and didn't need the tail shaft support like the automatics with an aluminum bell housing did.

[cdowns]

this is the crossmember for a standard tranny truck that i took out of my frame

[Lobo'74]

The general opinion from the shop I got the tranny from, the shop where I am going to install it, and here, is that the rear transmission mount and cross member are not used. I crawled under and checked, and the bell housing is attached to the frame through rubber blocks that sit on a frams cross member. Looks like I jumped to conclusions.....again.

Thanks for all the inputs.

[67_C-30]

Don't sweat it. If you haven't been around a bunch of these old trucks, you wouldn't know it. They do look funny with the tranny just hanging out there.

[special-K]

6cyl manual trucks used a forward crossmember that bolted to the cast iron bellhousing.A V8 manual truck used an aluminum bell housing and the tailhousing mounts like an automatic in a rearward crossmember.Alot of trucks are 6cyl trucks with V8s put in using 6cyl bellhousing and rearward motor mounting.

[68gmsee]

Howdy, another "mature" individual here. Actually, my wife would say "over ripe."

Anyway, my 68 GMC did not have a crossmember for the 3 speed, non-synchronized tranny that was on it when I got it. I swapped it for a synchronized Saginaw 3 speed that has the rear mount pad area on it.

I thought about putting a crossmember to support it and then read somewhere that it would cause problems with either the bellhousing or the transmission mounting points cracking. Don't remember which, but I have it just hanging and it works fine.

[Lobo'74]

Thanks for the inputs. I think that for now, I'll just mount the 4 speed on the cast iron bell housing (that is attached to the frame). Now I'm looking at the Hurst shifter and install kit I got. The closest mount I found to the existing shifter location is the Hurst 4 speed for the '67-'68 Camaro. That just arrived from Sumitt today. Now I need a clutch . . . I'm going to order the 11" Centerforce Dual Friction that fits on the '79 350.

Any comments on the choices?