Viet Nam Vett

I know Iv'e seen over the years one company making a Removable Tranny X member weld in or Bolt on kit.

Anyone know of a good High Quality source? Like to have one on stand by for when the Clutch needs replacement.
With the Tremec 5 speed and the 502....it ain't coming out easy. Not into pulling the motor and tranny when the time comes.

Randy G.

John McGraw

Mark,

I have always just made my own. It is really pretty easy since you have to cut the cross member out anyway before installing a new one. I just lay out my cut lines nice and square, and then weld plates on each side of the cut out piece. Then you can drill through the plates into the two stubs left attached to the frame, to bolt the reworked center section back in. Only about an hour or two of work if you have a welder, and no worries about the fit! Always better to use the existing cut out center section, than to try and fit a pre-made center section. I always pre drill the plates before welding them on and bolt them together with a pipe spacer between them to make sure that the holes line up and that the plates are the proper distance apart.

Regards, John McGraw

daz_au

I used this flange kit as a base.

http://americanpowertrain.com/i-2388...corvettes.html

I gave them to a skilled fabricator who cut my crossmember with a short stroke air hack saw and welded them in. He said while it wasn't the easiest job, having the flanges made it a lot faster. The flanges needed some "fine tuning" to fit my floor and some reduced head size hardware was required to make it possible to get tools on the top bolts. I was more than happy with the result, you can see some (pretty average) pics in the build thread here :

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...post1593497311

I can also confirm installing the TKO was an absolute breeze with this setup !

Viet Nam Vett

Thanks John... I have seen some home made set ups that look good. But I think I might go with (So Far) what Daz_au has linked me too. I like the look of that set up and what looks like a nice install. But at the same time ...using your Original X member has it's benefits also. Just requires a little bit more fabing. I'll ponder the results.

Viet Nam Vett

Thanks Daz..I like it..Some years ago I saw one from other MFG that looked cheezy. This one looks very nice. I don't want to face pulling my Tremec out with the X Member in place...What a Nightmare.!!!!

Viet Nam Vett

So...your Lurking...L.O.L. Looks like your contemplating the same thing...

Tampa Jerry

Another option would be to use a C-3 automatic cross member. You can add it only if you are doing a frame off. The automatics were bolt in. Jerry

Viet Nam Vett

Thanks Jerry...Would have been a good option. But...My Vette had it's frame of done years ago... That actually is a Very good way to go. Anyone doing a C-2 Frame off should do that. Great idea.

65tripleblack

Mark,

I had Kenny Capraun fab mine. He made the flanges. Very solid job. He's an expert welder and makes complete frames among other things. He's located in Wall Township and has access to a lift. One day, WHILE-U-WAIT and/or help. He'll prolly tell you to pay him what you think it's worth.

If you're interested I'll put you in touch with him.

PaulUptime

The American Powertrain solution is pretty much how I did mine a few years ago. My mechanic made careful body-on cuts to the crossmember, then I took fiberboard (basically non-corrugated heavy weight plasticized cardboard) to trace the openings, checking tolerances of how high I could make them. Used an XActo to cut these stiff templates and brought them to a fabricator who digitized them and made perfect flanges via CNC. I prefer the ring design to full plate as it allows for welding the brackets inside as well as outside. The solution has proven to work quite well.

BTW I have some extra plates and my templates are saved in a CNC file if anyone would like them.

Here are some pics with the surfaces machined flat and before coating them with POR-15. Two years later and the whole affair still looks like a factory job and brand-new.

John McGraw

Mark,

The American Powertrain kit is good to use as well. Keep in mind, that that price is just for the 4 flanges, which you weld to your original center cut-out section. I am a guy who just hates paying for something I can do myself. I just thought that $140 for four flanges was kind of pricey. I would rather cut my own for a fraction of that. One little trick to keep in mind with the end flange setup, is to make your cuts pie-shaped, so the opening is wider at the bottom than the top. It sure makes it easier to get the section bolted up. I worked on a car a while back that had this setup, but the cuts were wider at the top than the bottom. It was a pain to get in an out! You had to raise the center section up and slide it to the rear to get it out. If it is wider at the bottom, you can just insert from the bottom.
The same thing holds true if you use the side plate arrangement like I have used. Always wider at the bottom than the top. If you look at the pics of Joe's install, you can see he is much wider at the bottom than the top.

Regards, John McGraw

Viet Nam Vett

You know I remember that Pic of him.... Could you give him a Call and find out if he's still doing this kind of work? I'll PM you my number. Give me a Call. I'm looking for a First Class Job. No crappy welds.. A nice clean Painted look. I might even consider buying this to have him install..http://americanpowertrain.com/i-2388...ettes.html...I Like it. Call me Joe...

Viet Nam Vett

Thanks John,
L.O.L. ...I though it was a Complete unit...Doooooooh!! That is Pricey for just the end bits... So it's either go with this unit for $141.00 or have Triple Black (Joe's Friend) do the deal. I ain't no welder. I want a Nice clean weld job. This Guy has done this before and is a Pro fab guy. So maybe I'll talk to him.

Thanks again for the heads up on that American Power train unit.

KC John

Here is how I made mine removable. There isn't much room to cut the original out because the floor is so close. I chose to cut mine like this because it was the easiest way to avoid damaging any of the floor.




I welded plates to the center section and then put it back in place and traced the holes I drilled to make sure all was lined up and it fit like it should.





I tapped the holes in the crossmember and used Loctite to make sure the bolts wouldn't vibrate loose.





This wasn't too difficult to do and I know it's going to make future repairs if needed much easier.

Viet Nam Vett

Nice Job....

65tripleblack

Mark,

Too bad about Kenny. Hopefully Howard can give you a lead.

Meanwhile KCJohn solves the problem by making it easier to cut out the center section of the frame. I like it, except that I would use 3/4" black pipe as sleeves within the box channel so that you can torque the nuts/bolts without crushing the frame box channel. Once torqued, it will stay tight forever.Joe

Viet Nam Vett

Thanks Joe,

Howard called Back..Nothing around that he would recommend. Here's Roy's mod from The CF..

Randy G.

Still thinking about putting a 2004R transmission in it.

AllC34Me

I have done a bunch of these now. I used the American Powertrain system initially but they priced the brackets and bolts way too high so I worked with the machine shop that made them for American Powertrain and developed my own brackets.

I use them on all manual cross member frames so I purchased a few set. I have extra sets if you decide you would want to use this setup. Just PM me and we can discuss if you are interested.

Thank you.

David Howard
AllVettes4Me


77 frame with cross member modification completed.


69 frame #1 with cross member modification completed and reinforced welds throughout.

69 frame #2 with cross member modification and powder coated.