As many of you may already know, the '80-'81 citation cradles have a much skimpier back support bar than the '82 and later models. In order to help stiffen things up and add some strength to the mix, the back piece of the cradle was welded together at the seems, and the bolts kept in place. It will no longer be a two-piece cradle.

Upon further examination, I decided it was not enough to simply weld the back piece. Even more support was required, but without interfering with the '81's lowered firewall. To combat this, square shaped steel tubing was welded in behind the anti-swaybar to add more support.

If you do it to one, you must do it to all of them. The '81 cradle is a two-piece cradle, so all points where it separates had to be welded. I must say that after looking at this weld, I have to commend my Uncle Sal for his workmanship with the MIG welder, as he does excellent work. Everything that was done to stuffen the cradle will help reduce the bad torque steer that is inevitable due to the long passenger side axle.

This will be the location for the "rear" engine mount. Technically it is called the rear because it will be just slightly offset behind the crank pulley. The rear edge of this mounting spot tappered upwards, which interfered with the actual engine mount that will be going there, so it was cut and re-welded.

These are the cradle poly bushings, as shown before in a previous section, however, they have been modified using a table saw and a grinding wheel so that they fit the '81's front socket style washer. The cradle bushing pictured on the left is for the rear, and the one on the right is the front. Something to note: the '82 and later cradles use the left style of bushing for both the front and back locations.

In order for the front engine mount to bolt to the cradle, holes had to be made, since this is not a standard location for the engine mount for the stock 2.8L V6 that used to reside there. I actually used liquid paper to mark where the holes had to be drilled, since it shows up very well on a black painted cradle.