Swampy wrote: ↑Sun Sep 06, 2020 6:57 am
mickeyduck wrote: ↑Sun Sep 06, 2020 12:06 am
Benckj wrote: ↑Sat Sep 05, 2020 6:57 pm
Look at the bright side... it’s better than being a bike
Yep cos you can go around corners WAY faster in an MR2.
You proved that on a few runs Charlie. Poor bikies!
Yep the AW is surely an AWesome little beastie James!
Time for a little update. I made the new urethane inserts for the AW's engine mounts back in March. Finally got around to putting them in.
A little recap of the process...
Making the AW's urethane engine mount inserts:
Cutting the old rubber out:
Hacksaw a groove through the mount insert's steel ring. Cut where the mount's outer ring is backed by the main body, for strength's sakes.
Grab a dot punch and a hammer. This punch is designed to make guide holes for roofing iron nails / screws and works perfectly. Use the punch to peel the insert's ring away from the mount's outer ring.
Use needle nose pliers to pull the inner ring out of the mount. Twist it to make it compress like a clock spring, helps it come out.
Here's the insert's steel ring removed.
Now we need to get the steel pin out of the middle of the old rubber. I made a kind of chisel knife thing from an old hacksaw blade, and put a bolt through a bit of timber to act as a support for the thing while I carved the rubber away.
Clean up the mounts, then hit the urethane with a little soapy water to help the inserts press into the them. Same with the pins.
Then it's just a case of swapping the things in.
Can't photograph the gearbox one cos it's hidden away under the steelwork. But it's there alright.
The stiffer urethane does mean you get a little resonance in the cabin. But as you can no longer buy OEM engine mounts there's really not much you can do about that if you want to drive an AW.
Gave the old girl an oil change too so she has a new OEM oil filter and a fresh dose of Motul engine oil.
Oh yeah - while doing this I figured 2 things out. One was that the occasional clunk I'd heard coming from the engine bay was due to the nut having fallen off the main gearbox mount. Bolt was still there and nothing's damaged but no wonder I was hearing a clunk occasionally. That's why I parked it up a few months back, until I could figure it out. No point destroying things eh. All good now, new mount inserts and the missing nut has been replaced.
And I got to the bottom of an engine oil leak that had been puzzling me too. Turned out the oil cooler hose had gone hard and was no longer sealing on the pipes, so I replaced it with new one. Much better.