Thread: Project "Left Overs" is back alive !

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I'm glad you guys are a forgiving lot. Thanks for that.

Steve, you have GOT to start paying your shop help more money. The poor girl can't even afford a proper uniform, and has to ride a bike to work ! Uh, second thought, start paying her less !

Last night Dan and I went to the shop and looked over the center mount situation. After bolting everything up we found two tapped holes that Bendtsens put in the plate that must be there for the express purpose of bolting on some mounts there. We can find no other reason for them. That is good, so all we have to do is fab up two small Hurst type side mounts that bolt on there and extend out to the frame rails on either side. We can use a second set of earlly Ford bisquit mounts, and in essence the motor will be hung in a cradle of sorts, and the transmission center mount will be just icing on the cake and there to support only the transmission.

What we will end up with will be kinda like a front engine and mid engine plate setup, except it will have rubber bisquits on all four corners. Dan doesn't like just those two holes in the adapter plate holding all the stress, so he is convinced we need to tap one more hole into the plate where I have the little red dot in the picture below. I think two holes are plenty, but overkill never hurts.

We put the torque convertor on last night and bolted the transmission back on to make sure any mount we make won't interfere with anything, but there is plenty of clearance at those two spots. That will be our project Friday, and maybe making the tranny crossmember too. What is not shown in the picture below is the cast aluminum starter switchover housing that bolts up tight there and encloses everything. It also gives some strength to the bottom of the adapter. The original one was cast iron, but I have an aluminum aftermarket one that moves the starter to the right side for steering box clearance.

Don