Took the bus to a classic car show Sunday after fitting a big nut trans and 1600tp in the 57.

Speed was great, got it off the clock [about 65mph ] but the bleeding noise was unreal
I'm guessing it's because of the solid adapter plate that allows fitting a late trans into an early bus.
The bus only has a rear seat in and a thick carpet in back [got all the interior cards], worked my nuts off to get it ready for holiday next week.

Can anyone think of a quick fix [theres plenty of new oil in red/boxes].

I will fabricate a bracket that'll except the front flexi gearbox mount when I get back but just haven't got the time to strip it all out this week

Help appreciated please.
Thanks
Brian.

Dynomat or something similar or ear defenders?

vwjim wrote:Dynomat or something similar or ear defenders?

Hi Mate
Think that front solid mount is sending every bit of vibration into the chassis/shell, pigging ears were ringing for an hour afterwards

Other than that, sweet as a nut

You got any more of those front flexi mounts in yet

Just changed the bearings on my 65 big nut trans, (inner and outer 4 per side), and the noise is an awful lot quieter. There are two type of bearing used, a 16 roller and a 14 roller. The 14 roller bearing only lasts about 3 years before breaking up, and when it does you get a lot of noise.

Cheers

Steve

matara wrote:Just changed the bearings on my 65 big nut trans, (inner and outer 4 per side), and the noise is an awful lot quieter. There are two type of bearing used, a 16 roller and a 14 roller. The 14 roller bearing only lasts about 3 years before breaking up, and when it does you get a lot of noise.

Cheers

Steve

Cheers for that Steve, was going to rush round today and fabricate a new front mounting plate allowing me to use an original flexi type front mount.

if it's the bearings that won't help
Do you know of a way of checking them? and we are talking reduction box bearings

Brian there is no way of really checking them, until you have them apart, then you may as well change the bearings. I think the problem you have is as you say the solid mount, doesn't someone do an adaptor.

btw saw you on the M20 Sunday, did you go to Bromley?

Hi Simon

I'm hoping it's the solid front mount [adapter plate], be honest I hated it but it's whats sold to fit a later transmission into an early bus that had the doughnut type mount.
I have flexible rear mounts and a solid front mount bolted to the nose cone, didn't make any sense to me, I kinda imagine cracks appearing and the front of the nose cone snapping off.
I've just ordered a proper front mounting from schofields and going to fabricate some kinda bracket to bolt this on, can't be any worse than it is and I swear the bus amplifies all the sound inside.

I was indeed on the M20 Sunday but didn't go down as far as bromley the show was near Ashford and I turn off the M20 at Maidstone, I don't know another early bus round here.

See you at Peppercorn and thanks again
Brian

brianjbox wrote:You got any more of those front flexi mounts in yet

Afraid not. You could just go for a 'mid-mount'. It'll support /protect the nose cone better than a solid mount, and won't transfer the noise & vibrations...

Years ago when mine were going, they were picked up in the MOT. When I stripped them out, found that the bearing cages were breaking down.

vwjim wrote:

brianjbox wrote:You got any more of those front flexi mounts in yet

Afraid not. You could just go for a 'mid-mount'. It'll support /protect the nose cone better than a solid mount, and won't transfer the noise & vibrations...

Hi Jim

I couldn't get my head round the fact the rear of the gearbox had a certain amount of freedom/movement on the rubber mounts and yet the thin nose cone front mount was bolted solid, in my head if the back can wiggle the front'll snap off

I've ordered a standard mount today [should be here tomorrow] and am hoping I can remove the early/late adapter plate and fit this without removing the engine and gearbox again, if everythings disconnected I'll be able to move the engine/box back a couple of inches and have enough room to work in .

Never fitted an intermediate mount though seen them advertised, will look into one if I have no luck.

So with an intermediate mount I can do away with the front nosecone mount Jim

It is possible to replace the mounts, but its not easy. You have to disconnect handbrake & clutch cables completely, and be careful what you're levering against.

Yeah, a front mount could be left off, if you went for the mid-mount, as they're not really 'mid', they're more up at the nose cone end anyway. And yes, agree about the flexing rear and fixed nose cone concerns..

Cheers Jim, I'll think about a mid mount if I get stuck

Taking engine and box back out now [got bored ]

Cheers

For anyone browsing thats not 100% sure what this threads about, here's the gearbox nose cone [front of gearbox] being the shiny bit.

The grey painted fitting bolted to the early gearbox mount [rusty bit ] is the solid gearbox mount that you need to purchase to enable fitting a higher ratio late gearbox [known as big nut trans] to an early splitcase box and doughnut type mount.

Using a solid mount means theres nothing flexible to absorb engine/gearbox noise and vibrations, all the noise is transmitted straight into the body and chassis of the bus, blinking noisey
Another thing I wasn't over the moon with was the adapter plate pushed my engine 6mm+ back

I got over this problem using to heavy gauge washers [3mm each] between the gearbox cradle and the frame horns.

These adapter brackets are a long way off being perfect but I guess easy [nut & bolt] if you can live with the problems and noise.
If I can come up with a reasonable solution/alternative I'll post some pic's but my brackets coming out.

Might as well add, pic 1 shows the raised area on the nose cone that is the socket for a reversing light switch [on left of pic], I did fabricate a lovely plug for this that was totally useless.
The socket is so close to the mounting bolt that not only does the plug need to be flush I also reduced the height of the socket itself, this still only left me with a couple of mm clearance and don't forget thats with the engine/box pushed back.

Brian

One of these days, I'll get a photo of how I did mine, that didn't push the engine / gearbox back at all, and hasn't effected the noise level noticably

vwjim wrote:One of these days, I'll get a photo of how I did mine, that didn't push the engine / gearbox back at all, and hasn't effected the noise level noticably

I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll have a pic of how I achieved the same

Anyway a few more pic's for anyone contemplating this, first up the early to late adapter bolted to the early bus mounts.

A pic of an early split case gearbox mount [there's a large rubber ring "doughnut" that sits in the cup giving the front of the gearbox a little movement and absorbing most of any noise]

A picture of the adapter itself and beside it a front gear shift rod coupling that I had to cut in half, slide half on shift rod and half on hocky stick, bring them together and tack weld them before removing and fully welding. Because of the fixed position lacking any movement/adjustment of the adapter, my hocky stick didn't perfectly line up with the shift rod so I needed an offset coupling hopefully I'll be able to ding this as well

Just have to devise a way of fitting the new flexi mount tomorrow

My flexi front mount turned up this morning so I bolted this onto the nose cone, while the gearbox was pulled back out of the way I cut the lower half of the cup [that holds the doughnut] back flush with the torsion tubes and up to just under the bolts.

I slid the gearbox back into place and bolted it to the cradle [less packers that were needed before], with the front mount fixed and the front of the gearbox raised until the hocky stick lined up with the shift rod I could judge what was going to be needed to fabricate a bracket.

I cut a length of angle just short of the two welds on holding the torsion tubes to the centre section and found this slid into the gap that was left perfectly, I scribed round the front mount where it touched the angle iron.

I removed the front mount/angle iron and with the mount on the angle marked through the bolt holes, these were then drilled and some decent quality bolts [cup heads used as heads smaller] were pushed through from behind and welded to the angle bracket.
I still ground a little off the sides of the bolt heads to make sure they didn't foul the torsion housing centre, the front mount was bolted to the bracket and then the mount bolted to the nose cone.
The gearbox was then slid back into place and the cradle bolts done up again, with the bracket now touching the torsion tube housing and the hocky stick/shift rod lined up, I tack welded the angle bracket to the torsion tube centre section.
The gearbox cradle was un bolted as was the front mount from the angle bracket, everything was pulled back out of the way and the angle was welded to the torsion tube housing everywhere it touched [round top corners, bottom corners and a couple of places along the bottom.
I painted it with some hammerite [sorry guys, needed to finish it today] and slid the gearbox back into position, everything was bolted back up and I now have a removable front flexi gearbox mount
Just hope the things quieter when testing tomorrow