Has anyone successfully used the USCartool A500 Crossmember?

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You are probably binding the converter snout. Sometimes turning the converter disturbs the bind "enough." Sometimes what helps me is putting longer headless bolts into the lower large holes to act as guides
 
I completely cut the truck mount bosses off mine to give me added space just for that reason. I also have the US cartool crossmember but it's straight. I can't imagine how their QC let that one get through. I plan to cut the upper member right around the inner hole and weld a pipe section for the bolt between the bolt holes. Remaining flexible until mock-up. I'm about a month away from this I think. Still figuring out how I want to wire the whole thing up.

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67Dart273 said:
You are probably binding the converter snout. Sometimes turning the converter disturbs the bind "enough." Sometimes what helps me is putting longer headless bolts into the lower large holes to act as guides
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Good suggestion on the headless bolts. As far as the converter, its not even on the trans right now since I'm just test fitting to try to get my mount right.
 
Well I knew cutting myself with the cutoff wheel yesterday made me loose concentration.
This morning I went out to the garage and was like, dumbass, your trying to put a 7/16" bolt in a 3/8" hole!
Once I grabbed the right bolts it went right together.
 
MileHighDart said:
Well I knew cutting myself with the cutoff wheel yesterday made me loose concentration.
This morning I went out to the garage and was like, dumbass, your trying to put a 7/16" bolt in a 3/8" hole!
Once I grabbed the right bolts it went right together.
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This thread is worthless without pics! Lol.
 
Good work. That bent mount doesnt surprise me. I bought their torque boxes and frame ties. Sent the torque boxes back because they wouldn't work. I installed the ties after I ground down to the 90* bend. Should fit but never tried it on a duster is what I was told
 
So time for a little update, with some pic. Please be patient for updates, i'm, old and don't work as fast as I used to, and with christmas, etc...

So one thing I had to fix on their crossmember was that the bracket that you have to weld onto the back side, to hold the rubber mount, wasn't bent at a 90 degree like it should be, it was bent more than that, so when you put it on the crossmember it was tilted upwards towards the back. So I cut the corners of the bracket, bent it back to where it was square, and re-welded the corners of it back together.

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So I also ended up cutting out more of my original upper crossmember. So both of the inner mounting holes have been removed. Could have probably left the passenger side intact, but would have had to make some weird bends on the steel i'll be putting in, and to just keep things kind of symmetrical, I cut both sides the same.

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This morning I got the new inner holes drilled in the USCartool crossmember, and bolted it to the car so I can use it as a guide for drilling the new hole in the cars crossmember.

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Another thing I fixed this morning. When I first bolted their crossmember in, it wasn't level side to side. So spent some time filing out the bolt holes on the bottom side, and welding in material on the upper side., and vice versa on the other side. So now it sits level when bolted in. Wanted to get that fixed before I drill the new inner holes.
 
MileHighDart said:
So I also ended up cutting out more of my original upper crossmember. So both of the inner mounting holes have been removed. Could have probably left the passenger side intact, but would have had to make some weird bends on the steel i'll be putting in, and to just keep things kind of symmetrical, I cut both sides the same.

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Looking good! What are the four holes in the floor for?
 
plumkrazee70 said:
Looking good! What are the four holes in the floor for?
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That is where I drilled out the 4 spot welds that were holding the the original upper crossmember to the floor. It wasn't spot welded along the sides at all. In fact along the sides of of the tunnel, the section I cut out wasn't even touching. I'll use the holes in the floor to weld the top of the hoop that I'm making to the floor.
 
Found a perfect piece of scrap and started on my reenforcement to replace what I cut out. Around 2-1/2" wide, 1/4" thick. The auto shop at the school has a massive shop press. Bent it like it was nothing. I'll test fit it at midnight when I get home and see if it needs any adjustments. Hopefully I can get this welded in Thursday or Friday.

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What are you doing to the 'vertical' portions of the cross member, where you've trimmed it to make room for the trans? That's where the strength for accommodating torsion bar loads comes from.
 
Do you have subframe connectors in this car?
 
jos51700 said:
What are you doing to the 'vertical' portions of the cross member, where you've trimmed it to make room for the trans? That's where the strength for accommodating torsion bar loads comes from.
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See the post right above yours. 1/4" thick plate bent into a hoop that will be welded in place of what I cut out. It will be welded to the top of the tunnel, on the sides, and to the ends of where I cut the original out at the bottom on both sides
 
plumkrazee70 said:
Did you take what you cut out as a "template"?
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That was the plan, but I didnt have it with me. I just started bending, I've been staring at the bottom of the car for days so I had a pretty good idea how it should look.
Got home last night and test fit it, and its pretty dang close around the upper area, and down the sides. I still need to make a couple of small bends right where it meets the cutoff area at the bottoms.
 
I'm kind of skeptical if that 1/4" bar is really enough, it would be better if it was a box structure like the original for sure. In bending "cross-car" (think passenger side to right side as arrows show) with stress from the suspension rising and falling, I doubt it has much strength. The floors have very little strength outside of the crossmember.
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goldduster318 said:
I'm kind of skeptical if that 1/4" bar is really enough, it would be better if it was a box structure like the original for sure. In bending "cross-car" (think passenger side to right side as arrows show) with stress from the suspension rising and falling, I doubt it has much strength. The floors have very little strength outside of the crossmember.
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Completely, disagree. This new piece is way stronger than the factory piece, plus he has subframe connectors, which are welded to the torsion bar support. Along with the actual trans mount, it should be plenty strong. All my opinion of course.
 
goldduster318 said:
I'm kind of skeptical if that 1/4" bar is really enough, it would be better if it was a box structure like the original for sure. In bending "cross-car" (think passenger side to right side as arrows show) with stress from the suspension rising and falling, I doubt it has much strength. The floors have very little strength outside of the crossmember.
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Well, I'm kinda just winging it, based on what I've seen other people do. I've read every thread I can find on this swap, probably multiple times. I realize the channel shape of the original member is probably stronger, but fact is it has to come out to do this swap.
When I do my next test fit of the transmission, I'll see how much room I actually have above the tranny. I could add some metal to the edges basically making a channel out of it, but it would still have to be shorter than the original.
 
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