New gearbox mount in early days of construction...
 

Here is my weekend's weldings....

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now awaiting some more box section to make the end brackets - replacing my mocked up bit on the end of the 25x25 box.

Bit out of synch but last weekend's work
 

Welded in the rear half moon vent cover, cleaned up and aligned the front valence, but decided not to weld until i've cleaned up under the front and sorted the gearbox position. Got the engine mating surface to within 0.5° perpendicular to the top of the tunnel :D

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That's it for another week :( Gonna design the gearbox front cradle this week on CAD.

I know it's a bit late, but the torque reaction on the trans at the front has a lifting force which is considerably greater than the static weight of the assembly which is why they are normally done the other way around...
Rich

Hi Ricola,

I did read that the nose cone lifts on dropping the clutch, but rarely trust all the internet stuff i see.

Thanks for the comments, I did over think this a bit and was trying to avoid putting the bushes in tension, which with lift i guess i will see on my bracket / bobbins. I have always planned on running the T2 engine brace bar to eliminate this affect - always seems odd that VW never fitted one, but i guess on 50hp not necessary - hence why i opted for the design I have.

In your experience, would you be overly concerned with the set up including the rear brace bar? I would expect this to reduce the moment on the trans, but the force at those mountings would be pretty high too i imagine.

I do note that the Bug@5speed chaps and porsche seem to use a doghnut type mount with a steel sleeve in the centre meaning they must have shear in the rubber, I see this is the type you are using on your bar.

Any feedback welcome on experiences

Jon

I'm happy with using the OEM solution as it has obviously been designed with the loads in mind, the other one I do like is with a transverse bar with bobbin type bushes with their axes horizontal. I'm pretty sure I've seen pics of this on this site but can't remember which thread!

The nose definitely lifts on acceleration. Bringing it back to basics, imagine turning the axles to drive the car forwards at the inner ends and what the reaction force would be..

Yeah thinking about the reaction I can visualise the reaction torque applied, I was thinking about the stock mount and it is purely in shear at this point - axis of the mount is along the body, but unlike the mounts you mention [wrenchride's thread] there is no compression in the mounts.

I'm considering two approaches now, I think MK2 Golf engine mounts - round type with a bolt through the centre following the axis of the crankshaft would make a good solution since in all reactions it is compression and not tension.

Or reversing my current solution - these mounts are a lot lot cheaper than the Golf ones.

Hi

Cant wait to see more of your work.

When people cut down the 944 spring plate bush retainers they are usually left with two beautiful bobbin style mounts but nothing to use them on. Maybe someone has some left over that they can donate?

Steve

Royal wedding and welding, an unlikely combination of fun!
 

So I posted some of the gearbox bracket images and Ricola pointed out I'd got the mounts in tension - for some reason I have brain deadness and missed the torque reaction lifting the gearbox nose :rolleyes:

Thanks, glad I hadn't cut the chassis as I had planned to do today!!

So I took another look at what I had bought and had to hand, several ideas floated by - once again the use of Golf Mk2 rear engine mounts 2, one either side of the gearbox in a modified cradle, then I thought I would continue with what I had - spare urethane bushes for the track control arms and the previously shown bobbins.

A bit of thought, pizza box and ingenuity led to the following:

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Need to finish the ribs tomorrow and make the brackets for the chassis. This is quite heavy, I may decide to get one of the toolmakers at work to machine an aluminium version from billet, which would look a little more factory.

Tension strut mock up tomorrow if I'm lucky....

Bit more work done today - last of the weekend...
 

Looked at the gearbox bracket and decided to do some tidying and added the raising pad on the topside. No other mounts available via G&S today so have to consider the other mount idea for the future..

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Part 2
 

Fitted the car's old engine case and basic tinware to gauge the gearbox position since with the body back down it looked a bit wrong:

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Measuring the other bug I have I get 30mm to the front of the return of the rear tinware off the firewall, here I got 55mm :eek: so I got underneath to investigate. 49Rag whom I purchased the box off had it fitted to his car on the rear cradle that you see here, therefore I used this since if it fit his it would fit mine right!!!

Looks like the bellhousing is 23.25" from the torsion tube and possibly 10-12mm further back [towards engine], the body is sitting 5mm out of position. Looking at the box position there is only 5mm between the gearbox and torsion tube so can't go back any further.

Any comments on this appreciated, but since I'm going to run a T4 and make the tinware I can obviously make it all fit in there, just won't be stock.

I will ponder this a bit and see what others have done, but looks like I'll be making some custom tinware if I ever fit a Type 1 back in there.....

So I sneaked into the garage and had another car day - one outside the allowed limit
 

I just pottered and decided to fit up my T4 mock up engine and some other bits:

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In the pictures you can see a stock T2 rear engine bar and my old JMR turbo muffler - ran this on my first bug back in 2002 and saved it since it has a great low sound. It goes without saying that the pipework will need changing!

So I plan to run a polo front muffler under the O/S and the turbo under the N/S with a connecting pipe under the gearbox which will be set back from the flywheel oil seal location. I'll make an aluminium splash shield so that if I get an oil leak it won't end up on the hot exhaust!

Additionally, I figured out that I can mount a clutch slave cylinder along side the 901 box and use a steel rod to connect to the clutch lever, probably with a rod end for connection. This should give me a nice adjustment free reliable clutch connection.

The T2 bar will have late 1600cc bay window mounts used at the ends with a fabricated bracket to the bumper mounts and I'll probably use another 2 of these to remake my gearbox cradle - still not 100% happy with that design.

So happy that now I can begin the 'exciting' part which is laying out how the mechanical parts will fit - I will do this with the body and chassis as it is on my trolley then I'll pull out the chassis at a later date to repair the rusty areas since these are really small :D!

I want to make up all the mount bracketry for the engine bar and the exhaust before I finish the cosmetics of the body.