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Wed Apr 04, 2012 12:14 pm

I need some specs on mounting my bus trans. I have the whole rear section from a bus from the torsion housing back. I have no frame horns to bolt to so i have to build my own bracket. How do i know what angle to mount the transmission when going this route? Does it even matter? Seems like i have heard 10 degrees or 7 degrees somewhere. where do i put the angle finder to determine this angle in the first place? Also i think i had it to far forward the first time around. Will this matter as long as the cv's dont bind up?

Wed Apr 04, 2012 5:17 pm

Hmmmmm. I realy don't know what your set up is, but here are some pics of mine. Maybe it will help.

Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:26 pm

Similar but not quite. I dont have the mounting ears on the top of my transmission.

Here is what it looked like when i brought it home

i used a similar idea but made it look a little nicer. Also i just assumed it was about where it needed to be so i put a strap on top and cut the bracket off. I took a few measurments and made a new bracket.

Now I have taken all of that off because the less I have under the trans the more ground clearance I get. So i am wanting to build a new bracket that can bolt to the side of the trans mounting bracket instead of the bottom. I am just wondering now if there is a specific angle and height that the transmission needs to be mounted.

Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:35 pm

How did you know where to put the front bracket and how high and how far back to weld the rear frame rail that your rear trans mount is welded to?

Wed Apr 04, 2012 9:47 pm

Sorry for all of the questions but I had hell with some shifting issues and I never diagnosed it to see exactly what the issue was so im starting from scratch. Fresh rebuilt 002, new shifter mounting box, new shift shaft, and also a bug to bus shift coupler. I dont want to get it all together and have a similar issue and some one tell me well your angle is wrong on your transmission.

Wed Apr 04, 2012 10:45 pm

I bought the frame that way, so I didn't have to think about it. It was originaly meen to bolt to the two upper motor and trans bolts, but it would require a trans support to pull the motor. Since I decided to run a bus trans I mounted a bus trans bellhousing that has the upper mounts on it. Makes it a lot easier to pull the engine. I don't think it matters what degree you have it at, just get it roughly where it needs to be, make sure side to side its even tho. Others mite have a better idea.

Thu Apr 05, 2012 4:58 am

Thats the theory I had the first go around. I cant remeber off of the top of my head if there were any VW motors in the posts I've read but I do remember seeing people talk about the angle of the ecotoec or pinto motors because of oil issues. I'd like to mount it a little higher than I had it the first time I just dont want that causing any issues. Thank you for your help.

Thu Apr 05, 2012 5:27 am

Its pretty easy to get hold of a bell housing with the ears. Any will work from a 3, 5,6 rib. But some are deeper and may need input shaft swaped and or starter swapped. And longer bolts.

Sat Apr 07, 2012 2:41 pm

I am trying to get my trans lined up to fab up a new mount. I have it sitting in place and when I put the bug to bus coupler on to make sure it clears, it looks like i might have an issue. When checking to see if it goes into all of the gears it doesnt seem like it will go into 3rd and 4th. it hangs straight down and only moves towards the driver seat. It wont go past center towards the passenger seat. Not sure if that makes sense but ill try to take some pics.

Sat Apr 07, 2012 3:12 pm

I got it to go through all of the gears but here is what it looks like.

This is 4th gear

This is 2nd gear

This is reverse

Maybe this is right but it looks like my shift rod is going to bind before i get to reverse. Am I going to have to run a U joint or 2 or will it be ok?

Mon Apr 09, 2012 10:02 am

Hey aj how can you tell how and what gear your in when you just moving the shift rod by itself?

Mon Apr 09, 2012 12:00 pm

How stiff is the rear of that thing with a bus torsion? :shock: Did you take some of the preload out of the spring plates?

Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:37 am

With the bug to bus coupler on its easier to see the position of the shaft. You have to think about it backwards tho. I know the shaft in the transmission is supposed to spin to the right so I found reverse by spinning the shaft and the flanges spin backwards and just went from there. Wasn't to bad really. I did get the linkage put all in and it seems to work just fine with no binding issues. Since I was making my own trans mout and coul put the trans pretty much at any angle I wanted I mocked it up in a way that the shift shaft looked the best when connected to the coupler.

As for the stiffness that is a lesson learned/learning. That is one stiff bitch. I actually have made it worse 2 different times. First thing I did was let a buddy talk me into getting some 3/4 ton chevrolet pickup shocks with built in air bags. Needless to say there is no need for the airbags and I probably would have been better off welding in some solid rod. Apparently I'm starting a new thing called a ridgid frame buggy with a suspension seat. Ok so that made things a little worse then to gain a little ride height I added some preload to the spring plates. That will be the next thing fixed once I get it back together.