1965 1966 Engine Lift Stop Cable unit

[Blk63vette]

Hello
I ran into something interesting the other day. I found this Engine Stop Cable lift. I know they existed because my uncle had one on his Big Block Camaro. This actually saved him once or twice on take off while drag racing. I seen a bunch for 1967 to 72 cars and trucks. I had no idea they made them for 1965 Chevy C10 with Factory Air. I bought this off of eBay for 40 bucks and thought it would be and interesting piece to add to my truck.
My neighbor saw the box and told me he worked at a Chevy dealership in the late 60’s early 70’s. This was GM answer to apparently bad motor mount designs by GM. Instead of recalling 85 millions cars and trucks for new motor mount design with locking mechanisms GM did a big stick it where the Sun don’t shine and decided to produce these kits for cheaper than replacing motor mounts.
My neighbor said he installed a ton of these kits. He said in those days you worked on commission and GM book said it take and hour he could install kit in 15 minutes. He said it was “easy” money. He also said it was usually driver side motor mount would break from torque. When it would break it could jam the throttle linkage and many a driver had a wild and scared ride with accelerator pedal jammed to the floor. 😮

http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/a...1&d=1663872567

[geezer#99]

Of all the terrifying things in life, your motor twisting up and over to the passenger side and the gas pedal being pulled to the floor full throttle, that tops the list.
Had that happen on a 283 in a 59 Chevy.
A quick panic to find the key and kill the motor happened pronto.
Not knowing about that kit you bought, I used a short piece of chain to make sure it didn’t happen again until I put it new mounts.
Still kept the chain there though!
Any other cars or trucks I bought after that had the mounts checked first thing.
Good find.
Thanks for sharing.

[Bears63]

My '68 Impala had that kit installed on the 327. My great-Uncle, who bought the car new, had the kit installed at the dealership where he bought it. Never did say what year it was done, though.

[Blk63vette]

Hello
I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. I had a 69 Firebird, 69 SS 396 Camaro, 67 Camaro SS350 and not one of these cars had a stop lift cable. The way it was told to me GM did NOT want to correct this problem. There were NOT alot of cars and trucks that had motor mounts replaced by GM it was WAY to expensive to do. The 85 million cars and trucks were at risk. GM got extremely cheap on average stop lift kit cost GM on average one fricken dollar to produce. Corvette did not have this problem with motor mounts. This guy said GM cars and trucks killed a lot of people before they did anything about it. Probably due to law suits. The sad part is there are ALOT of these kits for sale. I can only assume that ALOT people decided not go into dealership to have the stop lift kit installed or just did not know.

[AcampoDave]

A long time ago a buddy decided he was going to show off in his squarebody by doing a reverse burnout. The smokeshow wasn't nearly as impressive as the "steamshow" when his motor mount broke and sent his fan straight into his radiator. I admit it....I was laughing.

[FirstOwner69]

More info...

[The Rocknrod]

Which ultimately led to the development of these motor mounts.

[Wrenchbender Ret]

Often besides jamming the throttle wide open sometimes it would snatch the power brake vacuum hose off.
I was road testing one back then when & it happened. I shut the key off quickly & it fell back down with a thump.

George

[jjzepplin]

I have one of those in my garage somewhere. I haven't installed it yet.

[Steeveedee]

Just buy the interlocking mounts. Those cable kits are an ugly retrofit, in my book.