If your like me you like the look of a tonti motor complete with pancake alternator in a loop frame. I like the open air look where the generator (or GF alternator conversion goes). I had the added incentive of making these brackets as I'm making an Eldorado Automatic this winter,and didn't want to have to engineer an electric ATF pump. I posted a scan of my plans that I sent to my machinist a few weeks ago. I got the brackets back this week, and have sized them with a spare timing cover. I'll only know if I got the dimension right when I put the entire drivetrain in and check the drive shaft alignment, but this check tells me I got the side to side dimensions right.
Motor Mount Plans: Hanger bracket to allow motor with tonti timing cover to be mounted into loop frame without welding.
Tonti Timing Cover Hanger Bracket 1
Tonti Timing Cover Hanger Bracket 2
Question from Greg Bender:
It is my understanding that the Tonti alternator cover will hit the front fender upon full fork compression? I don't have any direct experience with this, however, so I may be recalling incorrect information, etc. Can you shed some light on this?
My understanding is, if you do nothing, the fender (or perhaps more accurately the fender brace) will hit the cover. Once again I've been told that all that is necessary is to rotate the lower front fender mount downward. This would require drilling 2 new holes, and leave 2 holes to be plugged, so a purist might not want to do it, but then a purist wouldn't be mounting a tonti motor in a loop frame anyway.
Now if you look at a California II front fender (granted tonti frame), they have a flat spot hammered into the fender, I hope that isn't necessary as mine is chromed and might flake.
Other issue. I have heard of folks using a welded spool onto the loop frame to do what I have done with my links. While I was jigging all this up, I put a tonti drive train in my loop frame, and installed only the rear trans mount and battery tray. I supported the front of the motor with a jack. I figured I'd use the alignment of the fins with the lower rail (from the rear of the oil pan forward up to the 3rd oil pan bolt they are parallel nicely), to get the output shaft alignment correct. I wan't happy with that method, and I wish I had paid attention to the original output shaft alignment relative to the swingarm pivot, but never did. I figure to minimize stress on the ujoint, the output shaft of the trans should point directly dead center to the swingarm pivot (I mean centerline to centerline). Achieving this alignment, I realized that the front tonti motormount hole did not align with the crotch in the loop frame (this crotch is formed when the factory welds the front motormount onto the loop). Now to bring this story full circle and make a long story longer, back to the spool weld jobs. If the anecdotal evidence on fender clearance is based on folks using the welded spool method, their clearance might be different than mine. because I believe my motor mount bolt is lower than theirs... whew.
Now if I wasn't so lazy I get a tonti drivetrain back into the frame now that I hav my links, but I'm waiting till I have the motor and trans done, so I hopefully only have to do it once...
I invested $155 in my links, that included shortening and rethreading the front motor mount bolt (actually not a bolt, has a nut on each end). I'd be thrilled if someone would key up my plans (in the photo section) with the emachineshop.com cad software, so we could get an independent quote on these, because if I blew the dimensions, I'm looking at shelling out at least another $140...
Finally got my convert motor and trans done and bolted together. Got them up into the loop frame tonight, and finally got to check out how my new front motor hanger brackets did as far as output shaft alignment. I'm pleased to report that it looks great.
The first shot show the alignment. the convert output shaft is hollow and threaded. I screwed a long bolt into it, and the picture shows how the output shaft axis is co-planer with the swing arm pivot axis (the bolt exactly splits the pivot pin holes). this is key to minimize stress on the u-joint.
Output shaft alignment: I threaded a long bolt into the convert output shaft. You can see it aims dead center to the swing arm pivot.
This second shot shows the front timing cover with the alternator cover installed. It shows how I'll have to lower the lower fender mount as a minimum to get the fender to clear the alternator cover.
Hanger bracket, fender, alternator cover: A shot of the tonti motor to loop frame hanger brackets, and the needed fender bracket re-route.
Also if you look at my plans, you'll notice the mounts are asymetrical side to side. I was a little concerned about this, but the result is my motor sits dead center in the frame, so I'd say that at least for my frame it was the right way to go. My machinist, JVE of Greenville South Carolina, made these brackets for me, and could no doubt make some for you.