- Article/photo's courtesy of
- CK5.com
MOO Low Profile Engine Cross-Member
We had seen a few cross-members that were custom made by their owners but none that were available for sale so we started asking around on the ColoradoK5 message forums, that's when we ran across Steve Frisbie from Missouri Offroad Outfitters who had made a cross-member for his own K5. He agreed with us that an after-market cross-member needed to be made, so he drew up the plans from an old frame he had laying around and had one fabricated and out to us in two weeks, how's that for service. The first thing we noticed was the quality of the product along with the necessary hardware and detailed installation instructions, we finally had an answer to our cross-member problem.
New cross-member
Factory cross-member
Factory bump stop Bracket
Factory bump stop Bracket removed
Now the fun part begins, there are five rivets and two bolts on each side that have to be removed in order to install the new cross-member, we ended up using a combination of an air chisel and a torch to remove the stubborn rivets. Because the factory cross-member is mounted to the inside of the frame rails from the factory it has to be cut in half to remove, this can be a little tricky but not to bad with a sawz-all. We used a 4x4 block of wood standing vertical on a floor jack positioned under the harmonic balancer to keep the weight of the motor from spreading the frame apart while we cut the old cross-member in half, this also made it possible to line up the holes in the new cross-member.
The hardest part of the install was threading the nuts onto the bolts from the inside of the frame (behind the motor mount), here's where a little patience comes into play, we used a wrench with the nut taped to it to keep it from falling out. We only had one bolt hole that did not line up (engine mount) but the easy solution was to push up on the cross-member with a bottle jack until it lined up.
Factory cross-member cut
Factory cross-member removed
Bottle jack used to align hole
New cross-member ready for bolts
New cross-member located behind drag link
New cross-member bolted to engine mount
Room for hi-steer steering
Ready for the rocks!
- Company
- Missouri Offroad Outfitters **Out of business**