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Cross Member Splitting problem.


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This is pretty much for anyone here with a First Generation Monte Carlo. I was poking around in the Engine Forum and Jerry brought something to mind when he mentioned his front crossmember under the engine was splitting. I have a coworker sometime ago that mention he heard "alot of those First Gen. Montes did this". He had a frien when he was in automotive class that had one do this. How many of you have heard of this or anything like it? Is this an inherited problem with our cars? Or is it just another one of those "hear say" type rumors that fly around all the time? I have personaly never heard of this nor seen this problem on these cars myself. Anyone else?

 

Jon.

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Here are a couple of quick drawings.

 

the weld on the bottom where the engine crossmember meets the frame just let loose which put too much load on the crossmember at the top causing the stress fracture

top.jpg

bottom.jpg

 

 

[This message has been edited by Jerry (edited 01-22-2003).]

 

[This message has been edited by Jerry (edited 01-22-2003).]

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the first 70 i had the frame cracked on the right inside . its been yrs ago but i think on the verticle weld of crossmember to frame.

 

mike

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Wow! I will definately give that area of my frame an inspection each oil change.

I have never heard or seen of this before.

Jerry you said yours was built in Baltimore. It would be interesting thing to keep track of if anyone else has had that problem.

Bob

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I got a free 71 parts car. The frame was badly broken from the top of the crosmember down to the back lower A frame mount. There wasn't much left holding it together.

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After reading this thread i had to go out and check my 70' which is a Baltimore car 7-70.My crossmember shows no signs of stress or cracks.this has sparked my interest and i will frequently check this area.

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Just a short history on frame production of the time. All of our frames were welded by hand on a production line. Not all the frames were done by GM. I work at Tower Automotive. They bought us from A O Smith in 97. Smith made millions of frames for all the major car manufactures from 1903 to 1997. I started there in 72 on the Monte Carlo frame line. At the time our cars were made, we had a piece work rate of 745 frames in 8 hours. By 75 it was upped to 760. Not much time to spend on each one. Some frames were done better than others. It is more of a luck of the draw than an inherent design problem. I have seen bad frames on many cars over the years, but it's more of a bad weld and missed repair than a design problem. 14 people were used to put the front part of our frames together. Lots of chances to make bad welds. This part of the frame ends at the welds by the fire wall. The rear was made on another production line and the parts were joined on a seperate line later in the build process.

 

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Steve

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Wow Steve, thanks for the information. You really got to be a part of the birth of our FGMC (maybe even the exact car one of us runs today). It must feel great to see people so passionate about something you had a hand in building over 30 years ago. Again, this site and you people rock!

 

 

[This message has been edited by KnightTime007 (edited 01-23-2003).]

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You really got to be a part of the birth of our FGMC (maybe even the exact car one of us runs today). It must feel great to see people so passionate about something you had a hand in building over 30 years ago. Again, this site and you people rock!

 

Close but no cigar frown.gif. I started in August and 73 frames were going down the line. I made the beginning of the second generation. We used the same basic production methods through the end of the G cars in 88.

 

 

 

 

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Steve

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