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Old 10-21-2018, 06:12 PM   #108
John V
No more BMWs
 
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8
Location: Glenwood, MD
Posts: 14,753
I've been doing small things here and there on the RX-8 but nothing really worth posting about. I had been noodling ways to support the tail of the transmission since the RX-8 never had a transmission crossmember and I needed to fabricate one.

I started with some flat steel to bolt to the bottom of the transmission tail housing, then made two ears to capture a round tube and bushing which will bolt through it. My welding is still only sorta okay, I get good heat penetration but I tend to move too slowly when I start to pull the pool.



Next I used a piece of 2" 12ga steel tubing, cut it to 4" long and made two delrin bushings for it.



I gusseted the two ears of the bracket that bolts to the transmission side and drilled the ears for the isolator bushing and tube. This is the test fit.



I'm using a piece of 1" x 3" rectangular tubing to connect to the bushing and span the width of the car. I notched the 1x3 to prep for welding. It took a while to get the fit right, which when you kind of suck at welding, makes things easier.





I tacked it, then checked that everything was still square, and drew some beads. I feel like I'm gradually getting better at this. I got a bit of blueing on the inside of the tube so I feel like the heat penetration is good. Everything stayed square which is nice.



Underside, actually a harder joint to weld but it turned out better.



That's kind of where I'm at for now. I need to repeat this for the other half of the span, but I ran out of time today.
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