V6 confessions and hard won victory

[AZKen]

Probably no one can use this info but I will relate the story for entertainment of the smug.
So I took out my 305 months ago to "refurbish" and paint. The 1960 K1000 has a removable tranny cross member. So I took it out first and cherry picked the motor and trans together. Some of my removal techniques were lost with too many sleeps. Anyway, just put it back in. Thought I was going to die trying. New motor and tranny mount rubber. Reverse order, right? Put in the motor with tranny and then the cross member. Got motor in, even got front mounts in and lightly bolted. Jack under SM420. Went under to put in cross member. Well it won't go in at all. Got mad, then regained composure. Sat down and thunk on it. How could a cross member that has to fit tight and bolt on both sides with no adjustment possibly just slide in? Can't! So I says to myself, self, I says, "Xmember has to be forced in", I says. So no room to swing a BFH or ram bar, means; Take out motor, take off trans, put in cross member by force and chip the paint, put in motor again, take off tranny cover, sling tranny with picker thru passenger door and bolt it up trying to reach those stupid bottom reverse bolts. So far: cross member and motor in. Next step is do the rest after rest. I always thought a removable cross member was trick. It serves no purpose except to trick you. They welded them in later. I know how to put a motor in but failed on this one. At least the first time. What a monster to handle and lay under. Good grief! Pills! Pills! Where are my Pills!? I will not post videos of this embarrassing episode and hope that WikiLeaks does not get them.

[bobdylan]

I can feel your pain. I am trying to rescue an auto trans. cross member out of a 66 chevy truck before they junk it, I have tried the BFH , but all that does is fill my eye up with rust. I think I will use a porta power and spread the frame a little.

[AZKen]

People with experience tell me that's the secret. Spread a little. PITA. Maybe cut and reweld? I don't know.

[bobdylan]

I think cutting an angle on each end. add taking off a 1/4 of an inch wouldn't hurt.

[AZKen]

Don't know exactly what you are doing, but can you cut the frame around it and take it home and figure it out on the bench?

[bobdylan]

I was talking about trimming the cross member befor I put it in my suburban, attaching with grade 8 bolts.

[HOTRODJOHN]

I have not seen the transmission mount but in my race car years ago, I cut the center of the cross member on an angle on both sides, welded on the plates with 4 holes in them but cut them on a slight angle so when I slide it up from the bottom it is like a wedge and fits snug and then just bolt it in place. Yes it is a little work if you are only going to do this once. I had the trans out plenty of times while racing. Hope that helps. John

[WDShaffer]

I think on the assembly line, the engine & trans are already in the frame before body is placed on top...so reverse engineering after assembly is going to be a lesson in patience... some allowance has to be there for the factory mechanic to be able to service the trans without removing the sheet metal. I am thinking about this same situation when it is time for me to put my drive train together.

[AZKen]

On the second go-around, It was fairly easy to put motor in without trans. And it was fairy easy to put trans in. Throw-out bearing fell off once and fork came off and rod came off. Replaced fork ball spring and realized that fork return spring needed to be on to keep "pressure" on T/O brg as it goes onto tranny input shaft. Hooked up drive shafts. Made a clutch fluid tube going from MC to slave. Getting there.