[PRC]

My '57 has a 4 speed in it. The car originally had the 4spd hydromatic. It appears to me that these cars had no transmission crossmember. There are motor mounts on the bellhousing but nothing else supporting the trans. Is that correct? Of course a muncie should have a support under the tailpiece. This car has none and was driven for a while that way. Do I need one? It certainly seems that there should be some support there. Has anyone else swapped a 4 speed manual trans into a '57? Did you make a crossmember? What did you use?

[PRC]

My '57 has a 4 speed in it. The car originally had the 4spd hydromatic. It appears to me that these cars had no transmission crossmember. There are motor mounts on the bellhousing but nothing else supporting the trans. Is that correct? Of course a muncie should have a support under the tailpiece. This car has none and was driven for a while that way. Do I need one? It certainly seems that there should be some support there. Has anyone else swapped a 4 speed manual trans into a '57? Did you make a crossmember? What did you use?

[61man]

You have probably never been involved with 55-57 chevrolets. They all had the same rear motor mounts on the bellhousing and no support under the transmissions. Worked very well, Why do you think that a muncie would need one??? They weigh less than a t-10 with a cast iron case....and many of these were used in the 55-57 Chevrolets...

[Bill Eveland]

I'm putting in a Th 400 in my 55-same deal. From what iv'e seen in other 55-57's and what im going to do is use a 1/2" steel plate about 2" wide and mount it the the front section of the x-frame. I'll cut an angle on the ends to match the angle of the x-frame and mount a regular transmission mount to the plate -not solid to the transmission.

[PRC]

I was assuming that the muncie should have a crossmember supporting it because it has the bolt holes for a mount on the tailpiece. I was thinking of using something like Bill described but I wanted to be sure that I even needed it before I went to the trouble of making one. Apparently it is not necessary although I suppose it couldn't hurt. There are already holes drilled in the frame where it appears that someone had used a crossmember in the past. I know that this car had a Super T-10 in it before the muncie.

[Rocky 389]

I've run Muncies in 57 Pontiacs with the stock rear motor mounts and at the very least you should have fresh stock 57 mounts. I can't count the left rear motor mounts I've broken in 57 Pontiacs [with 59 and 60 389's]
I think the next time I'll use old ford flathead-type "bisquit" mounts and fab up my own bracketry...
You don't need no steenking tranny mount.

[PRC]

I have already purchased new motor mounts. Do you think that a trans support would have prevented the broken motor mounts that you experienced? I am not planning on being too abusive to the car so I think I will be OK with the new motor mounts.

[Rocky 389]

Brian...I doubt a tranny mount would help as it won't control the twisting motion at all and that's what breaks the rear mounts. I always drove my cars like a crazy man and the breakage rate was unusually high, compared to a sane guy. I just had to bake the tires and something forced me to scarf 2nd and 3rd gear on every takeoff. I'm over it now but I remember what it was like to change clutch after clutch, U-joints, axle shafts [yes, 57 Pontiac axle shafts will eventually break] and clutch linkage pieces. Spring center bolts were not spared either..