Crossmember alteration

JasonNC

One of our local chapter members fabricated a removable crossmember for his Hudsons in order to remove the transmission without having to remove the seat, the heater, and the floor pan, etc.  Has anyone else done this?  If so, do you have the measurements and/or pics of what was done?  

cchancel

I've heard of this done on Stepdowns. Unfortunately my source on this recently passed away.  From my conversations with him I remember he said it was based on the Hydromatic crossmember, which is removable. I happen to have this crossmember because I have considered doing the same thing discussed here. The Hydromatic crossmember cannot be used as a replacement because of the difference in the way that the transmission is attached, but it is a good model for how to attach it.

My understanding is that the manual transmission crossmember is cut out and tabs of some sort are welded to the frame to mimic the Hydromatic setup. A picture of the Hydromatic crossmember is below. Perhaps someone who has done it can chime in.

KustomKreeps

I did simular on mine. but doubt it will of much use as I also did the whole front sub turning it bolt in.

Still if you are interested you can see it on my build thread I guess.

bob ward

To me, being able to leave the car on the ground and remove the gearbox through the floor is a bonus.

JasonNC

bob ward said:

To me, being able to leave the car on the ground and remove the gearbox through the floor is a bonus.

I’ve changed transmissions in my Hudsons several times and I always put them on jack stands in order to drain the clutch fluid out first.  It never dawned on me that I could leave the car on the ground to perform this task.  Now I feel like an idiot.

Fred_Pitz

I put a 37 LaSalle transmission behind a modified 55 Olds in my 52 Hornet back in 1958.

The pictures don't show much (very old, scanned into computer).

I cut out the top part of the cross-member from mount to mount to move the engine forward about an inch so distributor would clear firewall without cutting.  I reinforced the cross-member with a piece of 1 x 2 channel.  I cut out a piece of 2 x 4 angle iron to fit the bottom of the bell housing and used 8 grade bolts to attach it.  Then I used early Ford front motor mounts spaced about 10 inches apart for the rear mounts.  Moving the engine forward put the Olds front mount right over the front flange on the front cross-member.  Then just frilled 2 more holes and it was in. 

It wasn't show quality but the car ran close to the NHRA "C Gas"  record in 58 & 59 and it never broke.