Bob Firestein crossmember swap out

[merbesfield]

for those of you who have experience with the Bob Firestein Saginaw conversion crossmemer swap vs. welding Scab plates sold by others, could you give you imput on the pros and cons? i have listed below some of my thoughts and some of them i am sure due to my limited knowledge of the porduct. so forgive my ignorance.


1. is the frame weakend b/c you have to cut out the factory rivited crossmember and the bolt in the new one?

2. is welding on the "scab" plate conversion better than the entire crossmember swap?


3. my concern with the crossmembe is it looks like inorder to connect the lines the connection point is under the corss memeber, so how do you access it without having to remove the steering box? now that could be considered good if you were looking to protect the coupling point where the hoses attach to the box, but no sure whether they need any protection.

 

[treerootCO]

Step one is see if you can get the Firestein mount first.

I have powersteering on my trail rig and it is fun. Driving a bone stock Cruiser is even better IMO.

 

[69 Pigboy]

No kidding on the availability of Bob Firestein mounts. I contacted him about motor mounts and he is no longer interested in dealing with them. He gave me the email address of the guy who was doing the fabrication for him but he never replied to my inquiries. Too bad...all indications from satisfied users are that they are the way to go.

Good luck....

 

[merbesfield]

Step one is see if you can get the Firestein mount first.

I have powersteering on my trail rig and it is fun. Driving a bone stock Cruiser is even better IMO.

i can get the crossmember kit, it will cost me $450.00 for just the three pieces, then i have to do all the other parts. is it worth it? or should i just do surgery to my own crossmember and weld the scab plates. seems kind of pricy, but it is a nice looking and stout product. the only down side i can see is that with the BF kit you have to remove the gear box if you want to remove a PS hose b/c they are located under the new crossmember. that may not really be a problem?