Dad I were going through some of his boxes of spare parts and we came across this Chevrolet motor strap thing. He remembers pulling of a Chevrolet but can't remember what year of car it was. We wanted to know why they used them and on what type of engine.
yup, mid sixties if I remember correctly. These were put on as a fix before Chevy came up with the safety mounts. the safety mount had a wrap around steel part that would keep the engine from moving far enough in the event of rubber failure and causing the throttle linkage to go to WOT. These cables were put on the drivers side only
Those were a safety campaign to keep broken motor mounts from letting the throttle stick open. The bracket anchored to the exhaust manifold and the cable wrapped around the upper control arm cross shaft and pinned to the bracket. When the locking motor mounts were introduced, they were no longer needed.
My family had a 1965 Impala 4 door hardtop, and I remember my mom coming home and saying the car had to get towed to dealer. She had been driving, and the throttle stuck. ( she always had a heavy foot!) Would have been around 1968 to 1971, when they bought a new car. We kept the Impala as a go to work car for my Dad, and I got my license in '74, so a vehicle for my night time cruising, and learning. That was the cure for it, as mentioned driver's side to limit the torque twist to p***enger side.
I restored a 69 396 Pace Car with one. Might have been a dealer add, all I know it was the most original car I have ever dis***embled and put that back where I found it.
I knew a counter man at the local Chevy dealer at that time and asked m how many of them they sold. He said it was their best seller at the time. This was early 70's time frame.
Recall campaign - 1968-9 All the original '60s buyers got a letter telling them to have a dealer do the job NC ..
Several different variations were available. Pretty neat item. Had a friend who's wife was driving his Mustang, auto, and every time she made a left turn the engine would accelerate out of control until she turned the key off. We popped his hood, told him to put it in gear and power brake it and the motor lifted up about 3", and pulled the gas linkage up, making it feel like the car was possessed. Mystrey solved. Broken motor mount.
The only buyer of these parts was the factory as the repairs were free to the customer. By 1975 any inventory left in dealer's parts department were supposed to be s****ped. I personally saw this when I worked out of the Chevrolet office in Chicago.
I have a cousin who had a 67 Impala that DIDN'T have the strap installed yet. His foot went down, the motor lifted up, throttle stuck and he drove it into a power pole. IIRC, Chevrolet helped pay for the repairs after a few back and forth phone calls to the dealer, and an inspection by a factory rep to confirm the motor mount rubber had separated.
My 67 Impala with a 283 had them. They were installed by the dealer where the car was originally bought. Cooley Chevrolet on Whalley avenue New Haven Ct. They supplemented the original mounts that, I believe, would fail. Something tells me it was the V8 that had the problem.
As other stated 68 was when the recall was rolled out and then it carried over through 69 and I think 70/71. The official bulletin and parts were created to do both sides of the engine, but most dealers just did the one side as it was faster and could fix more cars faster. I flipped a 67 Camaro that was a 2 owner car and it had both sides on it. I pulled them off and kept them for my car. Only car so far Ive found with a p***enger side setup mounted.
I asked to a guy several years ago with a very original 65 Impala 4 door hardtop with a factory small block that had one of these on the driver's side. He talked my ear off about those and why they were necessary. The other answers in this thread covered everything I was told about them. I don't know what year the fix came about, but his car is a 65.
We have the winner here! I've had a couple of 65-66 Impalas with these on them 283's with a 2 barrel carb [You have to strap these monsters down]
Definitely were provided in 1965 or or possibly earlier. I was there, Nalley Chevrolet on Stewart Ave, Atlanta, GA and installed many. Eddie
My 65 Impala 327 had them. A friend's 68 Camaro had Chains on the Crossmember(this was 1988)I was told they were a factory fix. Haven't though about that car since
My dad had a '68 wagon with the 327 and TH400, it was pretty fast. A mount let go on me around 1974, it pinned the gas to the floor and pulled the hose out of the brake booster. I just shut the key off. IIRC, we just put the locking mount in it. I probably have a few straps in one of my hardware pails. On the stock cars, we just used a length of chain from the engine to the front stub.
The Jalopy Journal
