Knocking gearbox

[gouldsborough7]

I've posted a few messages here in the past about the various noises that can come from our machines. I've nailed down most, or at least identified and put up with some. The last one of some concern is to do with the gearbox area near the hand-brake mechanism.
The chassis member (that goes beneath the rear of the gearbox) is hit by the box when going over significant bumps in the road, sleeping policemen etc. I have replaced the rubber mounts for both engine and gearbox with Ford items. The engine end is now more rigid, but the rear of gearbox still bounces up/down. Shimming the mounting to raise the gearbox 10-15mm causes the propshaft to contact the handbrake mechanism - not a nice noise at all - like a machine-gun!!
My previous enquiries resulted in members' suggestions to seek out nylon mountings. Probably very expensive if one can find them. I have tried to wedge strips of rubber between the gearbox and chassis member, which at least demonstrated the area of noise & contact. However, this does not survive for very long. Has anyone come up with an alternative?

Cheers
Mike

[Dane_Rescueman]

Re: Knocking gearbox

Hi Mike. I am about to convert to a five speed GB. The engione is now mated to the gearbox awaiting installation. I have moved all mountings forward by about 10mm. This will allow more room for the gearbox to move as it's rear end is rather tapered. There will still be plenty of room at the front of the engine. I'll let you know how it behaves once it is installed.

[CABRIOBOB]

Re: Knocking gearbox

I use to have the same problem when I raced Mk1 escorts with Rover 3.5 v8 engines but it also ripped the rubber mounts out off the housings. The solution was to get a 1" wide x 1/4" flat and x length bar and shaped like a horse shoe with 90% bent flats to bolt to the mounts side bolts, then use 1/4 3/8th convayor belting between the top of the g/box tail tube and the underside of the strap. Basically you using the standard g/box mount plus pulling/holding the gearbox more firmlly to the mmount.

[gouldsborough7]

Re: Knocking gearbox

Thanks guys
I was already thinking along the lines of adding to the existing gearbox mounting, by fabricating some form of support bolted to the floor of the car. The problem is that floor is made of ply or similar, so unlikely to provide much strength. It is also difficult to attach something to the gearbox tail. Perhaps I'll try the horse-shoe idea and beef up the floor with metal plates on the inside.
Cheers
Mike

[gouldsborough7]

Re: Knocking gearbox

It's me again. While under my Berli checking out the ideas in above messages, I suddenly thought of a quick/free cure - I could restrict the movement of rear of gearbox by winding a length of 30amp electrical cable around the gap between the large concave washer and the rubber mounting. The cable was stripped out of a redundant length of 3-core from an old cooker, and comprises black, red and green plastic insulation with about 8 strands to each. I left the indivudal insulation in place, and used the black one so that it wouldn't look to obvious a bodge! Only one wind in the gap seemed necessary, and by bearing the cable ends I was able to twist the metal strands with pliers and make a fairly neat and secure job. So far I have only travelled a few miles with this mod in place, so I cannot report it as 100% success, but indications suggest that at least an improvement will be likely. I will add new info to this column as and when necessary.
Cheers
Mike