Transmission mount – M3 Transmission: Close examination of the oil soaked transmission mount revealed that its effectiveness was less than zero. The replacement came in the mail, so today was the day to replace.

With the car up on jack stands, removal of the mount supports from the car was quite easy. A semicircular plate on the bottom of the car (4 bolts) and a piece on the transmission (2 bolts) and the whole device was removed.


https://i.imgur.com/LC5rUQD.jpg


I then attempted to press the mount out of the piece it sits in but I couldn’t get any leverage so that was to no avail. The mount was so far gone, however, that I was able to remove the central rubber piece with no difficulty. Then I carefully made two cuts with a sabresaw and removed the bearing ring by cutting it out.


I cleaned up and painted the mount supports, put the mount in the freezer and the piece into which it is pressed into the oven. Since the mount if “off center”, I puzzled over which way to install it. In the end, I installed with the small rubber side down. In other words, with the meatier rubber in the mount to the top and the off center hole to the bottom. I found and relied on this link: http://www.vp-autoparts.com/eu/main....le&artno=89731. Interestingly, for the PV444 the hole is installed down, but for the 445 and 210, the hole is installed up. Thank's for looking Army.

Despite my efforts with freezing the mount and heating the piece that it sits in, I had a very difficult time press fitting the mount. I used my heavy vice, but feared I would be unable to complete pressing it in. Eventually, I applied pressure first on one edge, then the other in an alternating fashion and it did press home.

https://i.imgur.com/Aijv9UQ.jpg


Spent the rest of the day under the car trying to clean up the floor pans. I was only able to complete the driver’s side. So far, the only floor pan that appears significantly compromised is the driver’s. The bottom of the driver’s side toe board is also compromised. The other three floor pans, while showing significant rust from the inside, are not rusted through. From the underside, the pans appear generally in nice shape. The current plan is to POR-15 the pans from the inside and paint with Eastwood’s Chassis Black on the underside. Replacement of the driver’s side floor pan and a patch to the toe board to be deferred as I want to get the car back on the road for the summer.

While I was doing this work, the ID plate on the transmission was revealed. It appears that the transmission is an M3, not an M4 as I thought. The other numbers were Det Nr: 254160 and Tillv Nr: 1450. I assume the Det Nr. is the unit's serial number.

The underside had been previously painted in black – maybe just primer. It was covered in oil soaked dirt / soil and was not so easily removed. The bottom of the car in front of the rear axle had several dents, and the bottom underside rail was also dented and somewhat mashed, suggesting careless jacking. At the end of the day, I emerged from underneath as if from a coal mine.

M3 = 3 speed. Are you happy with that? M4 or even M40 can be fitted but I think you may need some small mods to fit a M40 to the M3 bell housing. Not sure why but apparently the early clutches, yours qualifies, are prone to early wear/short life.

http://www.volvotips.com/index.php/pv/buying-tips-pv/

A conundrum, indeed.

I thought I had an M4 transmission, not an M3. My transmission is definitely 4 speed, with a non-syncromeshed first gear.

I went back out and double checked the tag. It definitely says M3.

As usual, I remain in a state of confusion.

Watching Army's thread is making me feel like a piker.

I still haven't decided what to do, but this morning I ordered a replacement floor pan for my driver's side.

After wheel grinding, both pans on the passenger side look good and the driver's side rear has only one tiny pinhole, maybe 1/4" by 1/16". Plan to use POR15 to stabilize these.

On the driver's front? I guess I'll have to wait to see how long it takes for delivery. But I may be forced to descend the rabbit hole if I want to show my face around here.

:)

Warm on Saturday, so I pulled the steering wheel out of the basement for paint. Here it is in primer. I then sprayed some semi gloss black with which I'm not perfectly happy. Put it back in the basement to dry. Not sure if I should clear coat it or leave as is.

Edit: Photo removed!

Edit: Photo added!






In other news, I put an engine in the MGA. Not too happy about that one either, but beggars can't be choosers.

+ YouTube Video

Boy, I sure wish I could edit my posts with the huge photos!

Sorry about that lads. I tried to reduce size before posting but apparently failed!


Edit: Not sure how I found an edit page on that prior post, but I removed the photo lest you all suffer!

While fooling around with my floors, I ordered some replacement kick panel cards. I'll have to cover them with some sort of "fabric", but now I have the question:

1) of how these should be attached? and
2) Is there supposed to be some sort of soundproofing/ vapor barrier behind the cards?

I see evidence that "something" was glued onto the car body in the car's prior life, but I'm not sure what that "something" might have been.

Heading to the track tomorrow. Since I scored the engine, I'm taking the MGA, not the Volvo.

Volvo is still a bit under the knife, anyway. :regular_smile:

I haven't forgotten the Volvo, but have been sidetracked. Since I got the engine for the MGA, that has been the main priority. Have raced x2 and it's running quite nicely. There was a 122 in one of the races last weekend and I think I got some video of that.

Last night, I think I finally finished off the steering wheel, painting a gloss black.

I've also been working on the floor pans. Concentrating on the passenger side as there are just two pinholes of rust through. Using POR15 which is interesting stuff. I'm using a plastic container to hold the paint and when it dries on the plastic, it looks and feels like a sheet of mylar. But when it dries on the disposable brush, the brush is rock hard. Finish on the metal is glossy and hard. I'll have to scuff it up. I'll probably top coat with white.

I haven't decided what to do on the drivers side. I'll probably POR 15 that side as well as I want to drive the car this summer.

POR15 is indeed weird stuff. If you want to stop a film from forming you need to stop air from getting to it. An old disposable glove on top of the paint inside the tin is a good start. To stop the tin lid from sticking on the tin use cling film / sandwich bag for the lid and then press down hard (hammer time!)

The thing to remember about POR15 is that it isn't necessarily as good as it says on the tin. De-rusting before is really important that's why they harp on about the Metal Ready + prep + Marine clean stuff.

Once it has dried I recommend you try and sand it off! I know it sounds a bit mad but you need to make sure it has stuck properly otherwise it just carries on rusting underneath.

Top coating POR15 isn't that straight forward either. You are best off using the POR15 self etch primer on top to bind the next layer of paint. They also sell a "tie coat primer" but it takes ages and ages to dry (in a Northern Europe climate).

If you paint on top of POR15 with out the tie coat or self etch then it is likely to flake off.



(I hope this helps and not ****es off!)