I recently did some work on the 56 Mercury 4 door trans and tilting it sufficiently to maneuver around the welded in cross member was a pain. I reckon it would be so much easier if the cross member was bolt in. I don't plan on pulling it out again in the foreseeable future, but it's bound to happen again one day. So I'm thinking to cut the cross member and create a bolt in arrangement. Or more particularly, get someone with the skills to do it for me.
Any thoughts on if this is wise and how best to go about it? Has anyone done it? And any photos if you have?

I haven't done this yet but it is still very much on the list. I don't suppose you (or anyone) have a photo of the Lincoln setup?

Hi Kingfisher,

There are a couple of Lincoln transmission crossmembers advertised on eBay - maybe those listings would help you decide if a Lincoln part would work.

Item numbers 312076745859 and 232680860976. I’ve attached a photo of the second one from eBay.

Mike

MplsMike
'56 Parklane
Minneapolis, MN

I have at least one in my garage.  I'll take a look when I get home later.  I'm very familiar with that bracket considering I have three 57's and a 56 Premiere.  

Had to do a little digging to find it.

Thanks fellas for digging out these examples. Clearly Lincoln and Mercury didn't share their frames. The Merc still had a ladder frame so that version certainly won't fit! It led to a decent Google about the different frame configurations over the decades. Quite educational.

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Yep, that's the troublesome bit, right in the centre of the diagram.

As mentioned, the way I would go about it is cutting the tube  @ the inner frame rail and welding pates on either end to fit within the rails exactly. I would also fabricate an outer rail plate to sandwich the the rail as it will have been weakened having removed the welded tube and having the open hole in the rail(s). Use GRADE 8 cap screws with shoulders and the proper torque value with possibly pals nuts to keep the frame rigid.

You would just have to figure if the cross-member will drop out or has to be slid rearwards to clear the trans.

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