Update by Tim Suddard to the
Elva Mk VI project car
Sep 28, 2022
|
Elva,
transmission,
Elva Mk VI
Photography by Tim Suddard
Our Elva sports racer’s rear transmission mounts bolted directly to a plate at the back of the frame. While not the preferred mounting system for a street car, this was not uncommon on small-bore sports racers of the day.
We were missing the front transmission mounts, however, but had seen photos showing tubular, diamond-shaped mounts on either side–something almost resembling a small bicycle frame.
We found the mounting points for these mounts on our car’s frame as well as the VW Beetle-based Hewland MK III transaxle.
Thankfully a reader was willing to loan us some mounts. After test fitting them to our transaxle and frame and determining that they were in fact correct, we set about duplicating them.
To accurately make these mounts, we first devised a jig from a flat scrap of steel. We simply traced the borrowed engine mount onto this piece of steel and fit bolts to represent the actual mounting points.
From there, we were able to cut the correct pieces of steel tubing, place them into the jig, and tack weld them into place.
Once we were done and made the correct bushings, we were able to test fit the mounts. Would they properly mount our transaxle to the frame?
Yes, everything fit as intended and also looked original. Now onto the next project.
View all comments on the CMS forums
You'll need to log in to post.
