In Mongolia on Peking to Paris rally and have broken the front engine mount. Need advice on how to access it easily. Taken off radiator, but still not enough clearance. What tile of mounting it is? Anyone can help

The 1929 to 1931 engine front mount is a steel plate which bolts under the timing gears and timing cover and is bolted and screwed to the engine block. There is no rubber mountings between it and the front crossmember, the engine is solid mounted. If you need to remove the engine mounting plate it means you will need to pull the pulley from the front of the crank and then remove the timing cover. If that still does not give you enough access to carry out welding repairs to the mount, then you will have to loosen all the rocker arms and remove the lifters off the camshaft , and then remove the camshaft before you can remove the front mounting plate from the engine.

Jack,

Man thanks for taking he time to respond. We suspected this was going to be the case so, given the limited time, resources and knowhow, we took an alternative route. We drilled another hole next to the original one, and carefully put a self locking nut just under the timing cover (very tricky) and put a bolt through it from the bottom. It looks as if it's going to work. Will post an update if it does not.

Best regards

Mattia

Good luck for the rest of your adventure.!!!

For those who are interested, you can follow Mattia and the other Peking to Paris raiders at the official rally website:

http://www.pekingparis.com

Daily reports are posted, along with links to several competitors' websites/blogs (including Mattia's).

I'm watching from the sidelines this time.

Dan
Car 34, 2007 Peking to Paris

Dan,
Experience creates wisdom.

Right you are Chipper. But in this case, I'd love to be a litte "wiser".

Dan

Wouldn't we all! Guess some of the experience that we had in the past did not sink in enough to create all the wisdom we want. Is that part of "wasted youth"?

Back to the subject. Seems that the repair must be working. Hearing nothing is good since only with an extended stay in one location (like when you are broken down and waiting for a part or repair) do they have time to send more reports.

When I removed the bolt off of my front motor mount about 9 months ago the bolt sheared off and I did not take notice of the mounting plate and its position. From what I am reading here, it sounds like the plate sits on top of the cross bar member and the bolt which I believe is a threaded stud screws into the block and there is a nut underneath the cross bar to hold the front end of the engine in place. Is that correct or am I wrong? By the way my car is a 29. What is the purpose of the mounting plate other than to keep the engine from resting directly on the cross member?

The mounting plate is actually called the "crankcase plate", and it is part number 836475 in your parts book. The crankcase plate bolts to the vertical face of the engine block and the timing cover bolts over the top of this plate. Check out your parts book since there is an illustration of what the crankcase plate looks like.

The engine mounting bolt is part of the crankcase plate assembly and it is attached to the bottom flange of the crankcase plate. The engine mounts directly to the front cross member and the mounting bolt that is part of the crankcase plate goes through the hole in the front cross member and the engine is bolted down with a large flat washer and a slotted nut under the cross member.

Again, check your 1929-32 Chevrolet parts book for more details.

The loose 1929-31 crankcase plate which i have at work has a thick reinforced plate about 3/8" think which is threaded for the mounting stud. I think the mounting stud was possibly a forced thread in to keep it secure under engine vibration and loads.

The use of an engine mounting plate transfered the single point load of the mounting stud to a larger load distribution area on the engine block. If they just use a cast lug point, the lug on the cast iron would normally crack due to the brittle grain structure of the cast iron ,and the vibrations, compared the ductility of the rolled and pressed steel crankcase plate.

When you say forced thread, does that mean it was not meant to be taken out and was the bolt designed to be removed from the bottom of the block? As I said earlier the bolt broke as I tried to remove the nut on the bottom? I either put way to much torque on the nut or it was fairly brittle or perhaps both.

The mounting bolt was part of the crankcase plate assembly and it wasn't intended to be removed. Check the illustration in your parts book and it will be self-explanatory.

The stud was staked into the bottom of the plate. Vibration and a loose nut often wiggled the stud enough so it loosened. It is common to weld it back in place.

Replacement studs were available as part number 836190- Stud, front motor support, I,U,Ind.