Tow hooks on a 76 X

Hi Guys,

I am going to help a friend take his non running 76 in for some service. I will need to winch it up onto my trailer and I am wondering where the tow hooks are on a 76? I have a 78 and I can only see the rear end the way it is stored, but I don't see any tow hooks on it like exist on the late model cars.

Where do I hook on? Do I just put a strap on the bumper and pull?

Thanks

I would not grab bumper...

'76 is the ladder or two bar deal the car is light but I would wrap my straps around the tubes that hold the bumper... those are bolted in the back just like the late model bumper shocks right? You might want to feed the straps out between the upper and lower bars so you don't put stress under or over bumper... I had a '75 but that was so long ago... surprised there are no shipping eyes on the older cars...
Regards

towing

there should be eyelets below where the bumper. they were used to fasten the car on the trip overseas.
mikemo

74 had them integrated

rocco79/138 said:

'76 is the ladder or two bar deal the car is light but I would wrap my straps around the tubes that hold the bumper... those are bolted in the back just like the late model bumper shocks right? You might want to feed the straps out between the upper and lower bars so you don't put stress under or over bumper... I had a '75 but that was so long ago... surprised there are no shipping eyes on the older cars...
Regards

Click to expand...

74 had them under the bumper blocks and integrated into the bumper bar that went into the frame. This is set of 74 US bumpers upside down where you can see the tow hooks:


The 1500 cars had the tow hooks built into the bottom of the frame tubes that hold the bumper shocks. I use them a lot when hauling my 85 around:


I crawled under the rear of the 78 again and there is nothing similar that I can see. I agree that the bumper shocks on the 76 are a better bet than the bumper bars themselves.

Thanks

I hope so Mike.

mikemo90 said:

there should be eyelets below where the bumper. they were used to fasten the car on the trip overseas.
mikemo

Click to expand...

I hope so Mike. At least you guys got me looking harder at my past tows. It was a long day and I just asked without looking too hard on my own.

There is nothing on the rear of my stock 78 tow hook wise and I can't see the front right now without unpacking a bunch of crap. Hopefully the 76 has the hooks. I will try to remember to report back.

Here is a 77 we were loading on a trailer and you can see there are no tow hooks below the rear bumper shock mounts.


And a 75 I brought home that I did indeed chain around the shock tubes:


I bet they tied them down with the shock tubes during shipping for a few years, then decided that wasn't so smart and went back to providing actual tow hooks.

Through the wheels if possible

It's not hard to pull the bumper off the shocks. And the shocks weren't designed to stop you from pulling them apart either. Of course you might not have an issue as long as you don't pull too hard on them. Please think about using a safety chain through the suspension if you do hook up to the bumpers.
If the car has wheels that you can fit an axle strap through, use them.
http://www.uscargocontrol.com/Towin...ie-Downs/2-Axle-Strap-Wear-Sleeve-is-included

I have axle straps,

Thanks Mike

I have axle straps, but I doubt they are long enough to go thru the wheels. I will add a chain to the mix, good suggestion.

No tow hooks on a 76

Well there were no tow hooks on the 76. Bummer. I winched it onto the trailer by looping a nylon tow strap over the front bumper tubes and then between the upper and lower bumper bars. Nothing deformed in the process.

I tied it down with axle straps on all 4 bumper shocks and tightened it up. I didn't add the last click I normally fight for since I wasn't on a designated hook, but the car will not move around.







I towed it about 10 miles back to my house tonight and stopped after a few miles to check everything. All was well. It is very well clamped down. I put the nylon tow strap around the front suspension as a precaution, but I don't think there will be any problems.

We will take off at 5AM heading for MWB to hopefully get this car back on the road. It will be a long day, but road trips are fun... right?

Thanks for all the suggestions guys!

That is a non runner????

I gotta bite... what is wrong with the drivetrain? That is a beautiful car! Would have picked my car out of a line up as the non runner 100 times before I picked that one... nice looking car!
Regards

Nothing major wrong

rocco79/138 said:

I gotta bite... what is wrong with the drivetrain? That is a beautiful car! Would have picked my car out of a line up as the non runner 100 times before I picked that one... nice looking car!
Regards

Click to expand...

Hi Rocco,

There is nothing major wrong with the car, just stuff the owner and I can't figure out. This was a one owner car and that one owner had made many performance related improvements over his 35 years of ownership. The new owner loves the car, but isn't mechanically inclined. I don't know enough about the dual carb set up, or the strange ignition system installed, or the oddly behaving alternator, etc, etc to figure out what is going on. Add in the time it takes to figure all this out and he came to the conclusion that it was time to just get it fixed. I agreed.

So off to MWB it went yesterday where Jon will set things right. We left STL at 5AM and got back to STL at 10:30PM. Long day. We did get to see the "Leaning Tower of Italian Steel" while we were there.

That makes sense...

I found a bunch of Xs here in Western NC and had old Bertone badge bases Iron cross wheels (they came on my '83) the build plate said 78 and all the 5MPH bumpers pretty much intact... open the hood and it is as you described your friends car. Dual carbs, fancy ignition system, header, probably a cam as well... no clue what year that car would have been. '79 would make sense but the Bertone badges were weird, and the wheels all had B caps on them! The build plate was really puckered so I thought it may have been swapped out but why? Hope your friends car plays nice after the sort out... if I may offer some advice more drive vs less will keep it running. Best luck!
Regards