Fellow TR Herders-
Well, it's story time here, so grab a beverage of your choice, or hit the
delete key now.
The other week I was at a car show and was talkin to a fellow whose
not-so-irresistable force met with a truly immovable object, and he was
bemoaning the fact that of all the parts that he modified, he felt the worst
about his lovingly hand-crafted cold air box and his headers. Seems the
impact broke the rear trans mount and allowed the whole magilla to move over
enough to wreak havoc on the forementioned pride and joy.
Well having been in that situation a time or two myself, and having an
OPINION on just about eveything (notice I didn't say good, or right...), I
told him mine and thought perhaps this isn't as much common knowlege as I
thought, so I'm posting it on the off chance that it may help somebody,
somewhere.
This mod will only work on the TR2-3-4-250-and early 6 cars.
Basically what you want to do is to use one long bolt down thru the left
trans to trans mount hole, all the way thru the crossmember. Remove the
existing short bolt, and drill down thru the hole so that you now have
another hole, in the crossmember, directly aligned below the original hole.
Open this new hole up a little larger than the bolt size, as you want the
bolt to be able to move around in the hole (that's why there's a rubber mount
there in the first place). Now you'll need to find a good graded bolt
(threaded all the way) about 5" or so (it will go thru the trans, the mount,
and the crossmember). In addition you will need a couple; regular nuts, one
nyloc nut, and a couple large washers. For the washers, try to find some
serious thickness types, not thin body washers. I used to use the washers
from the tension/compression rods on early BMW's as they have a generous
coating of rubber on one side of the washer and on this application they
won't make any noise. Put the bolt thru the trans as normal and put a nut on
to tighten it to the mount. Now put two more nuts on the bolt, then a washer.
Drop the bolt thru the new hole in the crossmember, add the other washer and
the nyloc nut. Now tighten the trans to the mount as normal, turn the other
nuts down until they almost contact the washer and lock them in place. Now
tighten the nyloc nut until it is close enough to the crossmember so as to
leave the lower washer loose.
Now you have completed the mod. DO NOT test this modification, take my word
for it, it will stop the trans from moving unless you use sufficient
irresistable force to actually break the trans mount and the mounting ear
off, in which case, air box deformation will be the least of your problems.
<g>
Ole shifty...
Nick in Nor Cal
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