T56 crossmember upgrade
Bought the IFS (Ingenuity Fab Speed) trans crossmember and first impressions out of the box were good, that changed when installation started. Not to bash the vendor but let’s just say attention to detail in assembly and fabrication left a lot of head scratching and repairs thanks to the time from ordering to installation. Through the process of correcting fitment issues decided to start over by redesigning and integrating the crossmember with a bit of frame stiffening thrown in for good measure.
First order of business was to correct how low the transmission was sitting when mounted to the designed location. Needed more than a 1 1/2” spacer to get the trans tucked up into the frame and at a matching 3-4 deg angle to the rear pinion angle. Decided against such a large spacer and cut off the mount bracket, moved the crossmember forward and low and behold, had the perfect height sitting on top of the crossmember. Used the cut off portion as a bottom bolt pattern for the trans mount.
Next, I wanted to correct lack of angular agreement between the trans mount and the crossmember. Used plasma cutter to cut a “U” with reliefs and welded up the dropped end of “U” cut. Translated this to bottom side. Now, the mounting location takes the preloaded stress off of the trans mount. I don’t know why I worry about this crap but I do...
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