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Talon · 06-25-2013, 02:30 PM

It has been a few weeks since I last posted, so I figure I oughta catch up a bit. I now have the surround for the engine compartment actually surrounding the engine. I also have the motor mounts sorted out and installed, so the engine/trans is hanging now. The Geo engine has three mounts, front engine, front trans and rear transmission. Of course my engine didn't have any of them with it. I purchased the front engine mount and fabricated a bracket for it. I fabricated the front transmission mount and the bracket. And, last but not least, I modified the rear trans mount to take a polyurethane bushing and fabricated the bracket. This gives us three points of support and hopefully will be stout enough to handle all those raging horses.

The front transmission mount I am not really happy with, so I may rebuild it, or plate the sides when I clean up and paint the engine cradle later. It is strong in one plane, but I'm not sure about the other, or need for strength the other way. We'll see.

I have decided to go with McPherson struts in the rear, with single lower A-arms, and I now have the parts, mostly. I ordered Heim joints and screw-in lower ball joints for the lower A-arms and decided to order weld-in bungs for the heims as well, remembering back to tapping the front arms, this sounded like a good idea. Turns out that my local steel shop doesn't carry the right size tube for the bungs. I haven't decided if I should order the expensive tube, or grind flats on the bungs and use square tube instead of round. I'll probably go with the expensive round tube and hope they can get it to me before Christmas.

By using the McPherson struts from my 1997 Ford Aspire donor, I get disc brakes and matching wheel pattern from the front spindles. I get a little too much height though, and springs that are way stiffer than the fronts, and more weight than I really wanted. (the two strut assemblies weigh more that the engine/transmission) I may end up doing upper A-arms and coil-overs for the rear as well, we'll see once I start figuring out how to mount the tops of the struts, it might be easier. They will stick up above the existing engine frame by about a foot and a half, so I'll need to do a pyramid structure to hold the tops. This will be in the rear though, so visibility shouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, that's where I'm at. More later. Pix below.

TALON §

06-25-2013, 02:30 PM	#42 (permalink)
Talon Builder Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Wyoming Posts: 28 Thanks: 11 Thanked 20 Times in 9 Posts	Motor Mounts It has been a few weeks since I last posted, so I figure I oughta catch up a bit. I now have the surround for the engine compartment actually surrounding the engine. I also have the motor mounts sorted out and installed, so the engine/trans is hanging now. The Geo engine has three mounts, front engine, front trans and rear transmission. Of course my engine didn't have any of them with it. I purchased the front engine mount and fabricated a bracket for it. I fabricated the front transmission mount and the bracket. And, last but not least, I modified the rear trans mount to take a polyurethane bushing and fabricated the bracket. This gives us three points of support and hopefully will be stout enough to handle all those raging horses. The front transmission mount I am not really happy with, so I may rebuild it, or plate the sides when I clean up and paint the engine cradle later. It is strong in one plane, but I'm not sure about the other, or need for strength the other way. We'll see. I have decided to go with McPherson struts in the rear, with single lower A-arms, and I now have the parts, mostly. I ordered Heim joints and screw-in lower ball joints for the lower A-arms and decided to order weld-in bungs for the heims as well, remembering back to tapping the front arms, this sounded like a good idea. Turns out that my local steel shop doesn't carry the right size tube for the bungs. I haven't decided if I should order the expensive tube, or grind flats on the bungs and use square tube instead of round. I'll probably go with the expensive round tube and hope they can get it to me before Christmas. By using the McPherson struts from my 1997 Ford Aspire donor, I get disc brakes and matching wheel pattern from the front spindles. I get a little too much height though, and springs that are way stiffer than the fronts, and more weight than I really wanted. (the two strut assemblies weigh more that the engine/transmission) I may end up doing upper A-arms and coil-overs for the rear as well, we'll see once I start figuring out how to mount the tops of the struts, it might be easier. They will stick up above the existing engine frame by about a foot and a half, so I'll need to do a pyramid structure to hold the tops. This will be in the rear though, so visibility shouldn't be a problem. Anyway, that's where I'm at. More later. Pix below. TALON § Attached Thumbnails