Matthew et al.-

I was thinking about your tiico bent frame rail problem while I was under my
diesel yesterday. I have a few questions:

1. Are the mounts for the Tiico the same as those in the diesel?

2. Are they similar?

3. On the tiico, is there a steel strap that passes under the oil pan and
connects the left and right mounts? (I think it is in tension, and I think
it keeps the mounts from rotating or separating relative to each other at
the bottom of the engine.)

4. I could draw a diagram or something. This is an easy part to toss or
neglect--it may look like a piece of the throwaway tin, but I think it
serves a structural purpose. Here is a poor attempt at ascii art, looking at
the back of the van underneath:

|   |  | |     MOTOR     | |   |   |
|   |  |_|_______________|_|   |   |
|   |  l. mount       r. mount |   |
|___|          strap           |___|

As I said, poor art. But the two mounts have things that drop down a little
and the strap bolts to the drops.

5. Maybe adding the strap would be an easy fix for your Tiico woes. My guess
is that if this steel strap isn't in the Tiico kit, it is because the South
African frame rails are beefier than ours and they can handle the torsion.
But you guys may be installing a mounting system on flimsier US model V-gon
frames. Just speculation.

Daniel Snow

'82 Vanagon Diesel
'78 Puch Maxi Luxe Moped
'01 Xootr Scooter
http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/snow/vanagon/vanagon.html

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