[David G]

Ok, I seem to be hitting an impass on my go cart engine install. After 5 hours of horsing it around, either the FMS bellhousing hits the cross brace early, or the motor mounts are way off. Jacking up the transmission doesn't seem to get me the clearance to get it in.

I'm also having a heckuva time getting the thing level. I'm using a load leveler but the two opposite header bolt holes make the leveler not really useful.

I need ideas for this. We had to give up at 9pm with sore backs.

It's CLOSE, if I could just find a way to move the engine back and down another inch I'd have it, but something keeps hitting.

 

[Mike Mondie]

I gotta think you have something wrong. I rented a hoist and took the engine and then installed the engine and tranny in under two hours by myself. It was my first engine install, when I pulled the engine out of the donor I sawsalled the front of the car off you that experience did not help.

My point is not to say I'm great, I did it, ect. It's that from what I could see in my build it should go easy. Do you have any pictures of your engine compartment and engine assembly.

one thing I can say to help is don't install the engine without the tranny on a Mark 2. Is your transmission mounted to your bellhousing and are you moving the engine and tranny as one piece?

[ August 12, 2002, 12:35 AM: Message edited by: Mike Mondie ]

 

[David G]

Yep the tranny is on and it's all one piece, but I can't help thinking I'd be done by now if the tranny was off. The FMS scattershield seems to be around 3 inches longer than the stock one, and is taking up all the front/back slack I should have.

I may be way off on this, and perhaps something else is wrong, but I'll put some pics up tomorrow.

 

[Richard Oben]

Leave the shifter and the tranny mount off and see if it will go in. The bellhousing should be the same length. Cheers Richard.

 

[lighning]

I had the same problem when installing my engine in my mkII, the square metal "tube" at the tranny tunnel would not allow the engine and tranny to drop enough with the motor mounts on. I was installing the engine alone and finally got it in by unbolting the mounts and sliding the engine/tranny combo in without them attached to the engine but on the mounts. This allowed the engine to lower enough to install, then with some work, I rebolted the mounts. It took alot of tweaking to do it but it worked for me!
Give it a try!
Let us know of your further progress.
Rick

 

[Platt Green]

Ditto to what Rick said about the motor mounts. I had to do the same thing when I tried to put the mocked-up motor and tranny into the coupe I am building. Actually, I only had to unbolt the passenger side mount from the block and re-attach it when I got the assembly lowered into place. Only took a few minutes. I am using the FRRP/McLeod scattershield and found that I need to remove some material from the drivers side to clear the diagonal 1" square tube so that the transmission mount will line up properly.

By the way, where in OR are you Advil?

 

[David G]

Thank you guys! I was going to post a bunch of pics to prove I wasn't crazy, but I guess that's not necessary. Now I've got to decide what to do about this since the engine is 95% installed. Pull it back out I guess. (argh)

Platt, I live in Aloha, just between Beaverton and Hillsboro.

[ August 12, 2002, 12:20 PM: Message edited by: Advil ]