S3 XJ12 trans mount

XJ
#1

It’s nice to get back to work. If I ate and drank any more, I’d explode.

This XJ12; I put in a new rubber, and spring rubber isolators, and I think I assembled it right, but now the rad fan touches at the bottom of the shroud, suggesting the trans mount is too high.
Or, maybe the engine mounts are sagging?
Then I wondered if I have the correct spring in the mount. I have a few shown, with paint marks in blue, white and purple. I’ve never seen a reference to these colours.
Does anyone know what the colours mean, or which the car should have?
Or does anyone have an idea to tilt the motor back a bit? Shim the motor mounts?
I was going to swap to the black fan while doing the belts, but don’t want to have it hit and be ruined.
Thanks,
Rob

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#2

I read your post the other way Fan meets shroud at 6 o’clock?

Denotes transmission tail low?

Car;

#3

Carl if the trans mount was low it would hit at 12 o’clock, when I changed my ‘S’ to manual I had to play around with different trans springs to get the correct one.

#4

Rob, offhand your assembly looks correct but I’m away from my car for a couple days so I can’t compare.

Isn’t the fan shroud positioning adjustable to some degree? I recall that it is. It might be that your engine/trans positioning is now correct but the last person to have the shroud off adjusted it for clearance with the engine/trans incorrectly positioned.

Just a thought

Cheers
DD

1 Like
#5

Hello again.

Regarding the fan blade touching the cowl after doing the trans mount:

As I had to do the belts anyway, I thought I’d remove the fan and cowl and see if some adjusting could be done. Besides it would give me more room.

Well, I doubt there’s much adjustment provided by the mounts, although with the cowl out, I could hammer it a bit. Luckily, the new black fan that’s always recommended seems about 1 inch shorter, so I’m hoping that will be enough.

Of course, once I got the cowl off, I found the rad in bad shape. I’ve read here about leaves getting caught between the layers, but this is first time I’ve seen it myself.

And, what the heck, lets get rid of the air pump. It’s in the way of the alternator bolts anyway.

I know…do it all, do it once…I’m new to 12’s so this may take me awhile.

Rob

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#6

Yep, Robert! Hard for any fan to pull any air through that insects’ hotel … BTW, once you got the rad out, did you take the chance to peek inside with some sort of endoscope? Would be interesting what its shape inside may be.

Good luck

Jochen

75 XJ6L 4.2 auto (UK spec)