Autofab OK?

[1Hondalover]

Anyone know if things are OK at Autofab? I have sent email to John and Tiffany.....talked to her twice.....she agrees I need to talk to John.....over a week now since the onset.....no John.

Either they're in trouble or extremely busy. Excuses don't do it for me.

Anybody?

[yikes]

I've talked to Tiff and Darren recently. Ordered and received parts. Haven't talked with John though.

[1Hondalover]

Hope everything is good Brian. I may need some of those cool wheel spacers when we get running here.

Good to know they active, but very strange John can't return the call.

More strange that a stock 351 could start to crack their nice motor mounts.

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[Wrightracing.net]

What kind of transmission mount were you running? Was it Rubber oem FORD style or a Poly style one like the motor mount?
They should be the same. I have been running those mount with the same style transmission mount for 22 year's and only replaced the bushings twice.

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[1Hondalover]

Looks like OE style David, but that little bit of more movement than urethane shouldn't be enough to crack those.

But it does say so on the website.

Maybe I'll just strip them and weld 'em back up. Then use the trans mount to go with them.

[Wrightracing.net]

It may not seem like much more movement, but it really is enough to put stress on the mount from a direction it was not meant to have more movement from.

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[300]

John has been spending quite a bit of time in Mexico. Seems to be easier to catch Wed, Thurs or Fri. They have been a little short handed in the shop.

[VintageIronFab]

Hate to be the ass but the AF welder needs to learn how to actually weld—trigger welding heavier material isn’t the best 1/8” is about max.

[1Hondalover]

I'm no welder but I've heard something similar from non-Bronco Friends.

[Cricket]

I bought the Autofab full motor mounts last year and they were definitely trigger welded. It made me scratch my head, but I figured they are the ones with the experience. Now I'm a little nervous.

[ntsqd]

That kind of bracket is all too common to see, but it isn't good design practice to bend the tab(s) with bolt tension. Doing so usually results in cracks like that. Some, usually by more accident than design, make the tabs so that the sleeve is a tight fit between them. Which makes it a royal PITA to assemble/disassemble and someone, sometime will stick a pry-bar in there to assemble or disassemble it, or both! Which promotes cracking the tabs....

Much better is when the sleeve thru the bushings butts against one of the tabs, but extends thru a reamed hole in the other tab by enough that the bolt can't go to zero on the tab with the reamed hole. That puts all of the translational loading on only one tab, so either that has to be dealt with elsewhere (like using the correct trans mount) or the fixed tab (as opposed to the sleeved tab) needs to be designed and built to handle those translational loads.


Strongly recommended reading: https://www.amazon.com/Engineer-Win-Car ... 011MBDQOM/

[VintageIronFab]

Who’s doing the welding over there? I’ll just say this- now if we are ranking welders and if you know Andrew Cho- he’s a 95% average and if I were being honest I’m a solid 83% and a 89% on my best day. On something this small I can weld these as good as Cho can due simply to the extreme ease and length of weld time. The thicker material is what is the kicker - 1/8” is about max for a trigger which is why tubular bumpers and even some cages get this technique but those parts don’t see the heat cycles or the constant jerking/twisting torque and vibration an engine mount would see.

[Wrightracing.net]

Keep in mind, this may be done in runs of large groups at a time. There may be a quality control issue, but I can't say for sure.

Just seems you are bashing a Company that has been building stuff and Racing long before you could even drive. And they are still in business all these years.

You are bashing them based on one example Here. Also nobody is perfect every time, especially welder's.

Just saying...

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[ntsqd]

And I'm saying that it isn't the fault of the welder or the mfg. It is the fault of the basic design. Most of the time it works, but once in a while it doesn't. This looks like one of those times. The basic design that I posted above originates in pre WWII aircraft where a failure like that is far less tolerable.

[BDKW1]

And I'm saying that it isn't the fault of the welder or the mfg. It is the fault of the basic design. Most of the time it works, but once in a while it doesn't. This looks like one of those times. The basic design that I posted above originates in pre WWII aircraft where a failure like that is far less tolerable.

Those mounts see a lot of back and forth loading. Your floating design would put all that load on 1 tab instead of 2. Some corner gussets would have gone a long way to fixing that issue.

For the 8 truck with the motor plate, I actually removed the rear tabs so that the motor would slide in with the mounts on. I did double up the front tabs and put on corner gussets though.

[BDKW1]

More strange that a stock 351 could start to crack their nice motor mounts.

What trans mount were you running?

[ntsqd]

And I'm saying that it isn't the fault of the welder or the mfg. It is the fault of the basic design. Most of the time it works, but once in a while it doesn't. This looks like one of those times. The basic design that I posted above originates in pre WWII aircraft where a failure like that is far less tolerable.

Those mounts see a lot of back and forth loading. Your floating design would put all that load on 1 tab instead of 2. Some corner gussets would have gone a long way to fixing that issue.

For the 8 truck with the motor plate, I actually removed the rear tabs so that the motor would slide in with the mounts on. I did double up the front tabs and put on corner gussets though.

They're there, just not very visible with the sectioning. Note the difference between the top surface of the right tab vs. the top of the left tab.

[4WPRusty]

I found my autofab trans mount broke when I bought my Bronco. It looks like a weld failed and the previous owner just kept using it. I am waiting for Autofab to approve the return, I will follow up with them today. I hope their business is still healthy. We need to project these type of companies.

[DMbronco]

Hondalover, any follow up on this- did AutoFab take care of you?

I've had great service from them in the past and John has always taken good care of me.
I had a box for my 2 link develop a hairline crack and it was a no questions asked, same day trade out.

Communication has always been consistent coming out of N. Woodside and I would be surprised if they haven't been in touch by now.

Updating this thread is the right thing to do; this shop has been in business for 43 years: blasting them and not closing the loop just 'doesn't do it for me'

[1Hondalover]

No. Have never acknowledged. And I've talked to John about a new hood.....both topics included in multiple communications he and Tiffany have seen. Nothing said.

So I may or may not bring it up. John sounded like good 'ol John when we talked a few weeks ago about the hood. He wanted some pictures of my current under the hood setup. I asked if he wanted me to send them to both he and Tiffany. He said yes. I did it. Haven't heard from him since.

The phone is rarely answered anymore. Must be nice to have enough work you don't need more. Guess I'm glad for them. Going to suffer whatever because I do want the hood.....and a tailgate if I survive the hood.

When we talked the one and only time, John agreed to come in early on a Saturday to do a physical on our way to Ensenada. Hope that can work.

Good communication is a thing of the past. I'm sure if you live in the area and physically show to talk to John et al you'll be fine.

I'll struggle through because John's hood is both good and cool. But those motor mounts should never have cracked.