Posted by: ShelbyDogg
« on: January 23, 2017 - 12:50:56 AM » Insert Quote
Chris that is a good solution to hold up the trans, but remember the original one also tied both sides of the torsion bar crossmember together to strengthen it because the front suspension is causing that crossmember to try and twist. As the car bounces up and down. Since you have it bent to fit, take it to a friend to weld and add plates between the bolt holes. What would that cost? Probably free or $20 depending on your friend.
I've thought of that and agree, that if I am going to remake these I'd use thicker metal than I used, but not much thicker. I used 1/8" plate that I had hanging around for years. That photo does make it look thinner.
I requested quotes for 3/16" mild steel. With the dashed bending cuts I designed into it, I don't think anyone would have any trouble bending a 3/16" thick one into shape. I used a Map gas torch from home depot that worked great, but I probably didn't need the torch.
It would likely be stiffer if it was welded, but even without welding your certainly not going to bend this once assembled with your bare hands, its quite strong and would be even stronger with thicker steel. You could certainly include a boxed bracket, like you show with the red shading and as UStool did it, but then you'd have to weld it, which defeats the do-it-yourself purpose. In many safety applications welding isn't allowed and only bolts are acceptable, since welds can be questionable and subject to failure.
I disagree that this bracket has to withstand torsional deflection or needs to reinforce the torsion bar frame for any type of "twisting" load. I think the torsion bar frame rail stands alone and does not need to be reinforced, but in the case of a Dukes type landing the torsional load from the T-bars would tend to "Spread" the T-bar frame rail and then the frame material itself (which is thinner then the trans cross member) would be the suspect material to fail at the welded in sockets.
I think the cross member does add rigidity to the frame rail, because it triangulates the engine mounting points to the T-bar frame rail, and could help prevent any potential vertical spreading of the frame, but that is only in the most extreme instances of momentary impact to the front suspension. If your going to do Dukes of Hazard jumps, then the trans cross member is the least of your issues.
I used the chevy one bolt mounting bushing (from a Camaro I think, its probably discussed somewhere in this thread), and made a 1"spacer to raise the trans until it touched the tunnel. For some reason, these new Hemis seem to tilt backward a couple degrees which looks kinda weird in the engine bay, but also lowers the rear of the transmission. So I went through several iterations of marking where the trans touched the tunnel, then lowered it, then pounded the tunnel up with a maul to gain some more clearance. That's one thing I learned with this rebuild is that any custom application is going to require some massaging.
I think one of the trickiest issues with this swap is how to get the speedometer cable through the cross member to the transmission. The location where the cable screws into the trans is different, relative to the cross member, depending on what trans you use. At first I used a built A-500, but thought I was having trouble with it when I couldn't get my engine to run right while it was missing a push rod. So I put a A518 in it, I had more clearance with the 518, I was actually able to thread the cable through the cross member instead of behind it for much less cable binding than with the A-500. Something to think about...
