A500-42RH swap question

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Wow, that's some serious cash for a simple crossmember modification.
And (!) you still have to take out the upper part of the stock crossmember and preferrably reweld a thick plate on the interior side of the floorboard to regain strength in that area.
 
BigBlockMopar said:
Wow, that's some serious cash for a simple crossmember modification.
And (!) you still have to take out the upper part of the stock crossmember and preferrably reweld a thick plate on the interior side of the floorboard to regain strength in that area.
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All worth it if you explore the A500 threads. It isn't that much if you consider someones lack of fab skills.
 
It's a very stout piece. USCarTool says it is built to compensate for the fact you are cutting out the top. Indicating no need to weld in a top hoop.
I went ahead anyway.
There still seemed to be a drivers side clearance issue though, & pushed the tail of the trans at an angle to the pass. I ended up cutting it & drilling new holes to get engine and trans straight.
 
RogerRamRod said:
It's a very stout piece. USCarTool says it is built to compensate for the fact you are cutting out the top. Indicating no need to weld in a top hoop.
I went ahead anyway.
There still seemed to be a drivers side clearance issue though, & pushed the tail of the trans at an angle to the pass. I ended up cutting it & drilling new holes to get engine and trans straight.
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Do you have a build thread of install pics? I was going to use this piece as well, but am not there yet with my build.
 
No, I took some pictures, though not a lot. I don't even know what I did with them, I was trying to find them on my phone for this post. Must've deleted them
 
I cut the driver side hall closest to the Tonnele, on both the crossmember and the cross piece. Reboxed the part, well today tube inside the crossmember for the new bolthole then closed off the crossmember.
I made the upper hoop out of two pieces of 2" wide 1/8"stock.
I bent one to match the floor pan,then welded it to the cut ends of the crossmember. I then bent the other to fit inside that one. Drilled staggered 3/8 holes in both, then welded them together and welded the edges.
 
RogerRamRod said:
I cut the driver side hall closest to the Tonnele, on both the crossmember and the cross piece. Reboxed the part, well today tube inside the crossmember for the new bolthole then closed off the crossmember.
I made the upper hoop out of two pieces of 2" wide 1/8"stock.
I bent one to match the floor pan,then welded it to the cut ends of the crossmember. I then bent the other to fit inside that one. Drilled staggered 3/8 holes in both, then welded them together and welded the edges.
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Thanks, is your ride on the road yet?
 
I built/modified my own stout lower crossmember and thought I could get a away with not creating the upper part of the crossmember.
After a few months of driving I had the car on my lift again and noticed the factory spotwelds were tearing loose from the floorboards.
I put welds along both sides of the crossmember and floorboards which stopped the process.
The (dynamic) weight of the heavier transmission puts a lot more force on the crossmember area.
 
Good to know.
No, I think I will be lucky if I'm back on the road by next summer. Probably not though, we are moving next week and new house has a few projects that need to be done.
I need to finish a couple things on the car, then it goes to body shop. I also have the engine in pieces, needs to go to machine shop. I bought the transmission out of a junkyard Dakota, so I would prefer to have that gone through as well. Trying to decide if I want to get the ATSG manual and take a stab at it myself.
 
It's a lot easier to build a new crossmember for the spool type mount that for the pad type.
I have about 10k miles or so on mine, and it was worth every friggin penny and bruise.
 
So I’m reading this thread a year & 1/2 later & realize my voice to text wasn’t doing its job properly on post 9, & it’s too long ago to be able to edit. Where were the grammar police when I needed them?
 
RogerRamRod said:
So I’m reading this thread a year & 1/2 later & realize my voice to text wasn’t doing its job properly on post 9, & it’s too long ago to be able to edit. Where were the grammar police when I needed them?
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Lol. So whats the verdict? Did you get the US car tool mount installed?
 
69E9F656-41F5-46A1-99B6-5E49CDE88422.jpeg
It WAS installed, car is blown back apart in preps to go to body shop. I crawled under there just for you to snap a pic. I opened up the drivers side a bit & drilled a new inner hole through the cross member and bracket. Camera angle is funny, but it’s close to 2-1/4 from the outer hole.
I was at the junkyard today pulling Liberty brakes to try the Mopar Action rear disc o tech swap down the road.
 
Had the block & trans in. Trans was hitting the bracket on the drivers side, & everything looked askew. Measured to get front of block and tailshaft offset the same amount between the frame rails, rough guesstimate how much needed to be removed, made cuts & retried. Can’t remember if I got it right the first time, (probably not) but got everything to where I think it needs to be. Front of block and tail shaft measure straight, and eyeballing down the tunnel looks good.
 
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