Top mounts! Whats the definitive answer?

[Error404]

the OE ones are not fixed in the strut towers anyway, so as long as the retaining rings can be tightened adequately to retain them with the suspension unloaded and the grub screw used to stop them vibrating loose they be fine. Poly is just a resilient if not more so than the OEM rubber material.

[zefsider]

the spherical bearing should take a lot of pressure off the poly section by eliminating the lateral stresses which would cause degradation of the poly as per the rubber in OEMs so wear may not be a major prob...could always machine a groove in the poly with an alloy or urethane ring same as the principle of Mountsavers .
The cost of getting hold of US Promounts means anything like these in UK would be cost effective even if at first sight quite expensive ...what cost are you thinking of ?

[bambridge]

excatly right,as the softer material wears/compresses,the mount will be loose in the housing,even if the locking ring isnt loose

The poly is the same size as a oem mount, so how will it become loose


is it s2Martyn or cooperquattro???? these days

[mcandmar]

Just to clarify, the solid alloy mounts only worked loose for me after initial fitting as the paint and body work got squeezed flat between the mount and locking ring. Problem i see in your design is you are not compressing the body work between a metal mount and the metal locking ring, because the lower half is poly and will compress under load and sudden shock (say bottoming out the suspension hitting speed ramps too hard). Basically there isnt going to be a constant tension there for the locking ring to work properly.

I would prefer you ditch the locking ring altogether and use the same fitment as the OE mounts, the only time the locking ring actually did anything was when you get airborne and the suspension drops out of the car, not something people do on a regular basis. It would certainly simplify the design and manufacturing costs for you. Basically think mance mount with a big spherical ball but instead of using an OE molding as the base use your own alloy/poly design

[Error404]

the locking ring doesn't need to "lock" though its only there to stop the strut assembly falling out of the strut tower when the suspension is unloaded, as per the OE plated cup, so long as it doesn't work loose it'll be perfectly fine
Doubt you can use the same system as the OE mounts anyway as the bearing & locking nut are bigger

[andy10v]

Lockring with a grub screw should work fine, you could back the lock collar off a few turns, lock the grub screw and you would have the same effect as an oe mount, the strut would drop a bit when jacked up.

Yes when you bottom out and compress the poly there will be space, grubscrew should stop in unscrewing though.

[bambridge]

Cheers guys, given me some positive ideas to think about

But these wont be available till Steve gets them fitted and tested

[Rusty]

Put 4 or 8 castellations on the stick through and put a locking screw or split pin in. Also, run a poly washer under the locking ring with a boss to fully insulate the mount from the body.

We might be able to alter these to run offset mounts too, with a different internal structure and locking arrangement.

[Error404]

Good idea, or your could make the ring slightly higher profile and use something like this:

[bambridge]

Put 4 or 8 castellations on the stick through and put a locking screw or split pin in. Also, run a poly washer under the locking ring with a boss to fully insulate the mount from the body.

We might be able to alter these to run offset mounts too, with a different internal structure and locking arrangement.

Was thinking about a poly washer under the locking ring, just need to check how much room there is under the bonnet, get sum drawings knocked up andy and i can get you a prototype done

As for the design, Steve Brown asked me if i could make something that looked like a solid mount but wasnt as harsh, yes maybe we could do away with the locking ring and use the oem cap, but would need to check dimensions because the spherical bearing is much thicker than the oem bearing and it has to sit higher up in the body to keep the ride height the same.
So by the time you add the strut locking nut the cap maybe to far out of the wing or maybe there wont be enough thread left.

[mcandmar]

Can be done, from memory the Mance mount uses the original top nut/cap but does away with the castle nut inside the mount, i can live with that setup. The solid alloy mounts on the other hand also did away with the castle nut but the top nut they supplied wasnt a locking nut which always worried me, if it came undone things would get ugly real fast.

[Rusty]

Happy to get something drawn up as it's a product that could be offered in conjunction with subframe mounts to double the castor . If we use the same basic shell then costs should be lower...? How have you held the bearing in place?

Just machine a custom top cap that fits properly, if it's an issue

The washer should fit into the top mount aperture, which is 50mm diameter from memory. Delrin would be another material to try, although it may offer no benefit over straight alloy.

[Jamo]

Delrin would be to harsh for street but would be excellent for the track racers
Red poly will be perfect compromise from the engine mounts ive tested

[zefsider]

The Mance mount does do away with the slotted nut that normally fits inside the bearing on OEm mounts...the added height of the Sph Bearing in the P/Mount makes it a good few mm taller , so less thread on the strut top. He supplied top nuts which were about 2/3rds the height of the normal nyloc, but it was a Unitorque nut whose inner has no nylon insert but is slightly elliptical so when torqued up grips the thread quite securely....there is practically no thread left though even when torqued fully down , only 2 days since fitting so will check to see if it loosens ( no thread room to put any loctite on though ). Any mileage in taking a hint on design from the 2Bennett top mounts ? Has anyone got them over here ?

[steverrquattro]

Cheers guys, given me some positive ideas to think about

But these wont be available till Steve gets them fitted and tested

All I can say so far is that these fit perfectly on the car.........and look awesome.

I'm waiting for my RS2 bits at the moment and I can then install the engine.