'73 Nova- Other Lessons

[Guest]

I also was blessed with a Nova as my first vehicle. I learned one of my earliest lessons while replacing a transmission mount.

I had scraped dimes and nickels together to buy the replacement mount whose rubber had cracked to bits, leaving nothing but bare metal on bare metal with a bolt running through it.

I was underneath, and discovered a huge crossmember hanging peskily in the way of replacing the mount. Fortunately, the crossmember was only connected by four bolts, two on each end. I snatched them out, but oddly the crossmember would not move. :roll: I figured the thing must be stuck...

My buddy and I took turns banging on each end of the crossmember with a rubber mallet, attempting to tilt it enough to get it from on top of the frame rails. Well, eventually we were successful, and at the same time realized that the crossmember supports the entire rear weight of the transmission and engine. The crossmember came down and would have crushed at least one of our arms were it not for an e-brake cable bracket that was TACKK WELDED to the frame. This little nub of thin iron had caught the crossmember, supporting God only knows how many pounds, and held it until I could get a jack in place.

Boy, we do a lot of stupid things when we are young, don't we? That could have been a harder lesson than it was.

[Guest]

Hi duke, Kinda reminds me of the time I was removing the drivshaft from my '69 chevelle. Put it in park, didn't block the wheels from rolling and when the u-joint was removed from the diff. fortunately there wasn't much of a slope because I was under the car and had to keep the thing from rolling.

[crank.it]

hey duke -same thing now ive got the scare on my elbow thought i could hold the weight....young dumb and full of c-----.........crank.it

[Les]

I tell you all what I did. Had a 57 Silver Hawk Studybacker. Put it up on concrert blockes, went under to work on someting I forget now what. Bit I do remember reaching up and takeing it out of park. There not much room under there. Tail pipe toke my front teeth out tranny cut my head. ect. To this day I don't get under anything that don't have somting under it thicker than I am. And I am thicker now than I was then.LES