Broken ear on transmission to bracket

[rad1965]

Hello all you porsche lovers, just wanted to share a not so good experience i just encountered. Last year i replaced my clutch pressure plate and throwout bearing. Everything went well and drove the car for about 10,000 miles without incident. Two weeks ago i was just cruising along at 65 on a back road and a ugly nast sound sou came from the trans area and the car was a no go. Looking in my rear view mirror there were parts on the road. The customary ooooh **** that didn't sound good wasfollowed by a sinking feeling in my stomach.

There were a few bolts on the drive shaft that loosened up and wam bam slam man the axel was toast. I was thinking WTF, i tourqued all those suckers last year but then thought yeah but didn't use locktight on them like a dumbass.

DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE USE LOCKTIGHT ON ALL .

Well it gets worse the easy part was installing the new driveshaft but the killer was when it self destructed it hit the trans mount and broke the mounting ear off of the cast magnesium transmission. oooouch I was looking at 1,500 to 2,000 for a used tranny or possibly fixing it. A buddy that is a master welder looked at it and said even though it was cast magnesium it was possible to weld the ear back on but difficult even under extreamly controlled conditions. The kicker was i had to remove the tranny and bring it to his shop, for $400 he could repair it. I went searching and sure enough the same exact thing has happened to some other guy. This guy got it welded and installed a support bracket looked like a decent strong repair. My self being the not so motivated person to pull the tranny . I created my own bracket similar to the oter guys and all is well. Seems to be holding up just fine i added a pic for any one in a similar situation. the car is an 02 with 160,000 i just couldn't justify a costly reair..

[mikefocke]

to hear a unusual sound and look at parts bouncing on the road behind your car. Plymouth Horizon.