To explain I need to tell a story. When my young son was in high school, a special favor was to allow him to take my 71 142E out with his buddies on a weekend. I suspected he would push the car hard, that is when it is the most fun.
He brought the car back with a horrible knocking noise from the engine. "It just all of a sudden started making the noise and so I brought it home".
Yeah, right!
Valves? Blown rod? I could not fiqure, the B20E ran pretty good except for a RPM dependent knocking sound. It sounded so serious I decided just to shut it down, resigning to the fact I was going to have to pull the motor.
Later as time allowed, and I overcame the dread of having to face the expense of a rebuild, I pulled out the motor. I took off the bell housing and clutch, it looked OK considering the hard starts my son prefered. I backed out the flywheel bolts with my fingers.............Huh?
Apparently with the lightened flywheel and the high torgue starts, flywheel bolts have been known to loosen, and fail. As the flywheel rotated, it was shifting on the loose bolts and knocking. I inspected the crank shaft, torqued down the main bearings and placed the motor back in the car.
This was 8 years ago and about 5,000 mi ago, The car was semiretired and off the road for a while in a climate controlled garage. Now, after a divorce and financial distress, I am forced to resurect it as a daily driver. I have recently joined the brick board and learned a lot, (thanks folks). As a result I have gotten my motor better tuned and putting out a lot more Hp.
But... just as I got it running stronger with a lot more power, I noticed the position of my swan neck moving as I torqued the motor???? Motor mount failure? front or rear? Oh my God. Could I have never replaced the bell housing/transmission bolts? Yep. When I torqued the motor the transmission would shift on the bell housing, and the rear rubber mount would counter torque it back into place. Apparently during the difficult fitting of the new rear rubber mount to the cross member 8 years ago I was distracted and screwed up, by not screwing down the transmission
Apparently no damage noticed yet. There was no separation between the housing and transmission. Anybody got any worries that I should look for?
Oh yeah Walrus, I found a dash handle you need. I might still have the dash board panels, but they are still in storage in my former abode. If you are patient we can arrange for you to have the panels as well when I find them. I have a unblemished dash I am preparing to place. I also have already placed a veneer of mahagony on my dash panels, it looks really good. When I fiqure out how to post pictures.....

Joel