I agree with Lou.  When I put the 312 in  my 54 Ford, I reinstalled the steady rest as it's  cheap insurance (actually, the 54 steady rest wouldn't work with the 312 balancer so I got a 55/56 unit)





54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

The way I look it it, putting the steady rest in place is cheap insurance against having to buy a new radiator.  

A lot of them were never re-installed if the Motor was pulled. I just got mine off this AM .Damper came off real easy.

  

I had a 1956 Ford Victoria back in the sixties and I don't remember the steady rests.  It didn't have it's original engine, so I assume they had been removed?  All the other Fords I have had until now were 1957 or newer.  This TBird is my first 1955 and my only small bird.   Most of my other full size Fords had big blocks. 

get rid of the front steady rest(the tbird is different as it uses a truck style front mount with a steady rest  where the car motor mounts  attach. i have had greaf with car motor mounts,the bonding  not always good. the steady rest won't help as it is just bent tin possibly there is some help on the forum re good quality mounts

Phil, the passenger and Bird mounts are completely different.  On passenger cars, they used side mounts on the engine.  The steady rest as discussed on this thread is on the front of the engine, similar to the Bird front mount.  I connects to a bracket on the front crossmember.  There has been quite a bit of discussion as to its purpose, I once read it was to take out the "freeway hop:", a resonance that comes from the tar strips between the concrete pads on the highway.  The engine mass was supposed to dampen the  pulses.  As noted above, it was discontinued in '57, probably because the '57 frame was completely redesigned.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

I recently rebuilt the engine in my 1955 TBird.  I installed the engine and transmission as a unit.   I left the steady rests off so I could see what effect they have on the stability of the drive train. Without the steady rests, I could rock the engine left and right.  There is nothing supporting the drive train other than the front engine mount and the transmission mount. You definitely need these in an early TBird.  I wasn't aware a passenger car had steady rests.  I learned something.

The guys that rebuild dampers also do motor mounts.

An option over off-shore replacement parts.

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As part of my re and re I am replacing both Motor Mounts as they are badly deteriorated as well as the Transmission Mount. I removed the Steady Rest on the previous 56 10 Years ago when I did the Engine over. As I mentioned Ford discontinued these after 1956 even though the Engine Mounts remained the same for several Years afterwards. 

  

I will be replacing my damper soon as the ring has moved and I don't trust it any more. Damper Dudes have my replacement right now. I have had the two bolts off from the bottom since I removed the pan in the car. I too am considering leaving the steady rest off. I can understand the possibility of a side motor mount failure but with the rear trans mount holding forward movement would be hard to do and a broken side mount would definately hit the fan shroud I have.
I too would like to hear more about removing it. I'm not familiar with Mercurys; did they have different side and trans mounts? Thanks



56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.