Transmission Crossmember Question
 

Hello all,

I have a 1959 Edsel with the ford-o-matic aluminum 2-speed. The crossmember is attached to the frame by 3 bolts on each side. However on my car some of the bolts are either loose or missing. One loose bolt isn't able to tighten and I also can't remove it. Not in a stripped way, it's like there's no threads at all. It has about 1/2-inch of in-and-out play. There doesn’t seem to be any access from the other side of the frame where I could put a socket into.

I'm guessing that these bolts attach to nuts that are welded to the frame from the inside and some of these nuts have broken free from the weld.

Is this a correct assumption?

Is this a known issue? If anyone has run into this, how did you solve it?

I'm not sure how I would get the tranny out if I needed to.

Thank you,
Alex

Re: Transmission Crossmember Question
 

A similar situation... the internal nut holding a bolt on the underside of the idler arm bracket failed and disappeared. We cut an opening in the frame to remove the section where the nut had been attached. Welded a flat washer & nut back to the inside of that removed section then welded it back into the frame and reattached the bracket.
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Re: Transmission Crossmember Question
 

Common problem with the 57/8&9s. Some folks drill a hole through the frame and use longer bolts. I chose to make "new" nuts. Drilled out the existing holes so the nut would fit in, marked the area that needed trimming so it would set flush, trimmed with a cutoff wheel and welded them in.

Re: Transmission Crossmember Question
 

The other solution is to drill a hole in the opposite side of the frame big enough to get a socket in. This way you can attach a nut . A simple rubber plug with close up the hole. This would not be possible if you do not have enough room to drill.

Re: Transmission Crossmember Question
 

That is slick ...