In your picture, is this a bolt?
View attachment 1716236519
The ballstud bracket gets welded to the frame, yours appears to be bolted in place. And that bolt is using the hole that the ballstud should be using. Post #4 shows the proper location of the plate and the spot welds.
While the automatic cars didn't usually get the bracket (some did, Ma Mopar and all) all the cars got the hole for the ballstud. The automatic cars just got a plug, like this....
View attachment 1716236521
Looks to me like someone bolted that bracket to the car using the hole you need for the ballstud.
As a rule, automatic transmission cars didn’t have that mount installed. But in reality, it wasn't all that uncommon. Orders changed on the production line, assembly line workers put brackets on the wrong cars, etc.
Somewhere here there's a thread discussing this with several members that have factory AT cars that have brackets, I did a quick look but didn't find it.
