hi all. i had a sump guard made + fitted for me. it bolts at front to crossmember and at rear to the chassis rails, it extends beyond the sump and finishes just on g/box side of bellhousing. thing is that due to the existing low ground clearance its been made with about 1/4 inch gap between the b/house and the sump guard framework. living down country lanes invariably i catch the odd stone in middle of road which pushes the frame onto the b/house and then i get a lovely vibration running through the car and eventually an unpleasant noise at certain revs. the quick cure is to get it up in teh air and jemmy the frame off the b/house. would obviously like to make a longer term solution. 1 way i thought would be to fit some form of a compression spring - that would allow the frame/guard to ride up if it gets whacked and then push it back to original position when the obstruction has passed. i've been trying to look for small compression fixing where i could bolt 1 end to chassis, the other to the guard - but cant find any. wondered if anyone got any ideas, or if there's something like this and if so if they have a particular name? wants to be no more than 10-12mm long with way of fixing small bolt top + bottom????? cheers mark

What about an exhaust bobbin?





HTH

Mike

mike, might be able to make something like that work, although was ideally hoping to be able to find some form of a fixing that would allow a bolt to go thru it top + bottom, with the bobbin even if the size could be adapted it the threaded bits would need to be bent to 90 degrees to make it fit. but i think the depth of one of those will be too much.....

I've fitted a sump guard to protect both engine and autobox sumps:

Sumps guard sideview

It's 3/16 Dural mounted to the bellhousing with steel brackets. That way it moves with the eng/box and doesn't need a gap. Trouble is that with no gap the airflow doesn't cool the sumps. I had to fit an ATF cooler and it looks as if I'll have to add a second one for the engine.
But at least the sumps are now protected - I holed the auto sump on my first day on the road before fitting the guard.
John.