One wire lock-up, 4 spd automatic w overdrive into A-body.
Thanks for the picture and information. Reinforcing this area, and/or weakening it as little as possible in the first place has universally been accepted as mandatory by most folks on this board. It's a stressed part because of the torsion bars etc. Do you have subframe connectors installed already? Your picture pretty much validates all our fears about messing with this area without doing something to add back strength.
The location of the small tear is informative. It's in the spot where I am finding the last of the spot welds on my crossmember. There are none on my tunnel loop, in fact the gap between the crossmember and the floor is pretty large on one side. It is due to the location of the shift mechanisms mounting pad, which has since been removed. (see pic) This is the exact area where material will either have to be removed, or some other modification to increase the clearance made. It's one of the main reasons that hold back most Mopar folk from going with an automatic overdrive of any description, even the diminutive 200R4 needs more room here. Just how much remains to be seen.
PoisonDart used an 1/8" plate bent in the shape of the transmission tunnel, and extended it down far enough to cap off the open ends of where he cut the torsion bar crossmember. He used an super strength body panel adhesive. I believe he also welded the sides to the transmission tunnel, but I'm not 100% sure about that. have seen other guys do just the welding with even thicker steel flat plates that they had to use hydraulic presses to bend into shape.
Great info here! Thanks!
Good job on welding the entire crossmember to the floor. Add a lot of strength which you really need.
My Dart has 1" torsionbars and a 518 for which I removed the top half of the crossmember in the tunnel.
I hadn't found the time yet to install a reinforcing bar on the outside of the tunnel in the driverscompartment.
I posted this image on Moparts yesterday aswell;
Below is what happens when the crossmember is 'weakened' on top and the floorboards aren't welded to the crossmember...
After I noticed this happening on both sides of the crossmember I also decided to weld the crossmember to floor as good as possible.
Thanks for the picture and information. Reinforcing this area, and/or weakening it as little as possible in the first place has universally been accepted as mandatory by most folks on this board. It's a stressed part because of the torsion bars etc. Do you have subframe connectors installed already? Your picture pretty much validates all our fears about messing with this area without doing something to add back strength.
The location of the small tear is informative. It's in the spot where I am finding the last of the spot welds on my crossmember. There are none on my tunnel loop, in fact the gap between the crossmember and the floor is pretty large on one side. It is due to the location of the shift mechanisms mounting pad, which has since been removed. (see pic) This is the exact area where material will either have to be removed, or some other modification to increase the clearance made. It's one of the main reasons that hold back most Mopar folk from going with an automatic overdrive of any description, even the diminutive 200R4 needs more room here. Just how much remains to be seen.
PoisonDart used an 1/8" plate bent in the shape of the transmission tunnel, and extended it down far enough to cap off the open ends of where he cut the torsion bar crossmember. He used an super strength body panel adhesive. I believe he also welded the sides to the transmission tunnel, but I'm not 100% sure about that. have seen other guys do just the welding with even thicker steel flat plates that they had to use hydraulic presses to bend into shape.
Great info here! Thanks!
