Red engine mounts crumbling

The 2 poly-urethane trans. mounts (engine end) collapsed on No.8 Beetle a while back. I 'fixed' the problem by fabricating steel solid mounts.

What caused this to happen? Was it because the swing-axle rear end puts more side load on the trans. during hard cornering? The orig. rubber ones lasted longer.

Has anyone else experienced this, or am I the only one?

Yep seen it before, even the steering couplings can go crumbly....no idea what causes it as some last for years.....🤓

Greg,

I know Peter with the billet bug had the exact same problem and went back to rubber mounts, there have been a few threads about these type of mountings disintegrating

And the red steering couplings are worse..... no warning, then no steering.......

I think its just different brands, some obviously better quality than others

I got asked a few weeks ago why I'm running rubber OEM ones over the pretty red poly ones.

For the exact same reason, the red bugpack i think they were in my black bug had crumbled too, yet the German rubber ones I replaced in 1998 in the Sbug were still almost perfect.

poly urethane has poor sheer and stretch properties often failing, but has superior squash/load bearing properties making them exceptional bushings.

To conclude,

Poly urethane makes best bushes but worst mounting.

get some HD genuine vw mounts 👍

A good friend of mine makes rubber products (wiper blades, seals etc.), and when I showed him the failed poly urethane engine mounts, he was horrified! I remember his exact words - "Don't use that shit", he said, "Use natural rubber". He even offered to make a set for me. I declined his offer, and made them out of "natural" steel - the stuff that I know best.😁

About 6 or so years ago, he made me all the suspension bushes (didn't want rod-ends) for my 550 Spyder replica out of his special rubber. They are still like brand-new.👍

yeah those Red poly bushings fall to pieces , very bad idea for bushings and or mounting, I wouldn,t even trust em for sway bar bushings , although most people seem happy to use em .

It seems that no one makes decent urethane rubbers for vw. You get what you pay for.

Come on... Rhino mounts $40 for a set? Got to be something wrong with them for that price.

I paid like $250 for a complete set for the front of my VP(6 bushes and few swaybar rubbers). Fulcrum (aka super pro) brand. 👍

So indestructible I bashed them in with a hammer. I can tell you first hand that their rubber is unbelievable and nothing like that red stuff.

vlad01 wrote:It seems that no one makes decent urethane rubbers for vw. You get what you pay for.

Come on... Rhino mounts $40 for a set? Got to be something wrong with them for that price.

I paid like $250 for a complete set for the front of my VP(6 bushes and few swaybar rubbers). Fulcrum (aka super pro) brand. 👍

So indestructible I bashed them in with a hammer. I can tell you first hand that their rubber is unbelievable and nothing like that red stuff.

I agree, some brands seem good, others not so.
Pretty normal really 🙂

My front swaybar bushings (extremely important on Superbugs) are blue polyurethane and seem to be decent quality, I haven't had an issue with them so far. I can't remember what brand they were though.

HappyDaze wrote:The 2 poly-urethane trans. mounts (engine end) collapsed on No.8 Beetle a while back. I 'fixed' the problem by fabricating steel solid mounts.

What caused this to happen? Was it because the swing-axle rear end puts more side load on the trans. during hard cornering? The orig. rubber ones lasted longer.

Has anyone else experienced this, or am I the only one?

My 68 low mileage beetle does the same thing...
they get lifted on one side and pushed down on the other...
I replaced My last pair after about 4 years and 5000 kms...
they looked all cracked on the car but the cracks disappeared when i took them off...
but probably from Brasil...
The Red mounts are fairly solid...
but with bushes, rubber is better as it twists as its supposed to... the polyuathane is very solid.... doesn't twist...

I'll stick to genuine rubber ones...
I just bought the rear rubber bushes for the rear torsion bars and they have VW part numbers on them...
but where they were made???? who knows...

LEE

PS: its like a lottery... good parts one day.. crap the next...

I ran swayaway urathane mounts for years without problem's, cannot get them anymore, so i purchased a set of EMP* mounts, lasted about two weeks, absolute crap, the urathane is either poor quality of they have not been cured very well. not rocket science to have things made out of urthane, had some industrial mounts made with great success locally.

IRS Beetle Solid Gearbox Mounting !

Has anyone done this in a Beetle, Baja or Buggy ?
Either front or rear mount or both of them ?

Im fully aware of the noise and vibration factor.

Has anyone got stories or better still pics ?

Can someone tell me what the advantages are of solid mounting over rubber or urethane mounts ?

I had the berg bus intp bug gearbox mounting system (actually I plagiarised and made my own version). The rubber mounts on the nose cone broke. The aluminium ones didnt. If you soild mount everything its harder for it to tramp about.