65 c10 lwb xmember/frame question

[ckirk20603]

OK...noob question here.

This is my first truck rebuild. There is a cross member just below the front of the cab that is riveted to each frame rail and crosses just under the bellhousing of the tranny (which makes it impossible to pull the tranny from below) which is currently a small block w/ th400.

How structually important is this member and what if any suggestions on either drilling out the rivets and bolting back in or removing completely?

[chevy_mike]

That crossmember was for the stock manual trans bell housing. It had rubber mounts (similar to engine mounts) so the whole engine/trans combo was held in with the front motor mounts and these bell housing mounts. The trans just hung out in the air.

Auto factory (I believe) did not have this crossmember and used the standard rear tranny crossmember and mount to hold everything up.

Likely your truck was orginally a manual trans truck. You can remove it and just use a rear tranny mount crossmember.

[ckirk20603]

Great... thanks for the info chevy_mike!! I had a feeling it was for a different setup than what is in the truck now.

[Captainfab]

I always recommend removing that crossmember when converting to an auto trans. When these trucks came from the factory with an auto trans, that bellhousing crossmember was not there.

[ckirk20603]

Thanks captainfab. I'll be contacting you soon when I go to add a booster to this drum/drum brake truck.
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