How To: C15a Wire-3 restoration

[Paul Singleton]

Bruce, I have seen many GM crossmembers with the lip cut off. Some people do this to make it easier to replace the clutch. With the lip removed the pressure plate and clutch disc can be pushed up into the bell housing at the same time. If the crossmember isn’t cut you need to push the pressure plate in first and then the clutch disc, which can be a bit difficult and hard on the fingers.
As far as Jordan’s comment about the gear, the large gear at the rear of the transmission does protrude above the case so I believe the tower wasn’t installed.