Driver Side Mount

DRIVER'S SIDE MOUNT BRACKET FABRICATION

This page is part of the Shocky Jr. Restoration and Upgrade Adventure Chronicles and it details fabricating the drivers side mount bracket to mount an 02J tranny in the A1 chassis.

Since it had become apparent that Dan and I were not going to be able to purchase the mount brackets for the 02J, the realization that they we would have to fabricate them ourselves came to be. SO, without further ado, the driver's side mount bracket fabrication pics sequence (phew...say THAT five times quickly).


	Since we didn't have the tools to fabricate a hoop for the actual mount, we looked into using the existing hoop by retaining some of the original bracket. So, the stock mount was cut pretty much completely away leaving just the hoop.

	Once the stock mount was dismembered, new appendages needed to be welded on....first up: the outer vertical piece.....which we had already made when fabricating the temporary mount to hold the tranny up in light of the shop bought mounts not working. This outer piece and the stock hoop were made for each other as it turns out, because with a 90 degree rotation of the hoop from the stock position, the holes in the outer piece line up perfectly with the outer face of the tranny mounting lugs.

The first horizontal piece enters the mix.....This guy will bridge the tranny mounting lugs. The bend is there to bring up the height of the existing mount so that it will clear the front lug and avoid interfering with the reverse light switch (see below).

	And of course you should always give your designs a go around to confirm that they are indeed doing what you need them to do. In this case, we are verifying that the horizontal piece successfully clears everything (and it does......).

	To allow for shift linkage clearance, the horizontal piece was cut away in the corner that was encroaching on the natural habitat of the linkage.
	With clearance verified, the horizontal piece moves in permanently. These pics show the completed welding.

	So, with the first two pieces happily living together....a third wheel enters the mix: Vertical piece #2. The second vertical piece will pick up the inside mounting hole of the rear tranny mounting lug (since the inner edge of the front lug is not machined, only the rear lug will be picked up on both sides)
	With tack welds in place, the mount is trial fitted on the tranny
	Some cuts are made to clear the front of the tranny mounting lug and then back into the engine bay it goes! (yup....good to go)

	So, with the trial fitting done with, it is time to weld this puppy in place....or as it may be....weld this puppy in place as much as the crevice will allow.....
	....and this was the extent of the welding (for that side of that piece)
	Enter....the internal stiffner.....It's sole purpose in life?? To stiffen things of course!!!!
	......and here we have Mr. Internal Stiffener all welded in place....note that it does not have to be completely welded to be strong.
	And now we finish up the welding on the outer vertical piece...
	Same view but shown to emphasize the level of difficulty in getting the torch down in there......The tungsten electrode had to be extended quite far. The thought was that if the top seam for the vertical side member couldn't be fully welded..then come hell or high water at least one of the other seams would be!
	...and there you have it....all difficulties aside...that seam looks welded to me......!

And....one more trial fitting.....and everything still looks good to go......
	So now to put the final touches on the welding and tidy things up... Here we see that the outer vertical piece has been completely welded on and the internal stiffener ground down to the height of the vertical pieces.
	And here we have a view of the underside welding of the outer piece where the welding extends over into the original mount to weld up that seam.
	And finally.....here we have the top piece welded into place.


	....and now we have a completed mount without the holes added....

The pics above show the final version, everything welded, happily co-existing, and the holes drilled with the tranny side of the bracket actually now attached to the tranny mounting lugs.

	Welp, you guessed it....these are pics of the newly fabricated driver's side mount bracket, after it has been thoroughly bead blasted.
	Then we have the powder coated version....now featured in...Flat Black (a favorite of mine....much to Dan's dismay...he is a semi-gloss sort of guy)

	Yup....all done....all that is left to do is press in the new mount and everyone goes home happy!!! Enter....the "orange beast".......

	And finally the new motor mount can move into it's new home...gotta love Pascal's Principle!
	......and here, many hours of work later, we have......the driver's side tranny mount bracket with mount pressed in and aligned just perfectly.......


Done, done, done, done, done, done, done........done. Now....what was this about a rear mount bracket???

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