# 66 LeMans, Yoke Knocking



## LeMansChaser (Mar 13, 2012)

Not to boor everyone but I bought my first project car (extremely excited) so please sure a little patient with me. Its a driver that needs a little love. The first issue I want to tackle is as below. 

In some situations the yoke will knock against the bottom of floor board where it joins the 4 speed manual transmission. Most of the time when it is just me in the car it wont do it; however, sometimes when I engage the clutch it will make the noise. It always does it when I have a passenger (haven't had more then one passenger yet). It creates very little damage, some scraps on the edgers of the yoke and some very very minor scraps in the floor where the rub. It is very loud and very annoying. Passengers cringe at the noise and so do I. 

Important note: last year the previous owner had rear air shocks installed (25-200psi). It is worse when they are let out, better (but still knocking) when full. 

What I think it could be. Well... truly my only guess is the cross member insulators are wore out. I took the brackets off and they seem to okay but there is a lot of give in the insulators. (I have another gusse but I'm grasping at straws here and would like to keep it to myself for now...) 

Thanks for all of your help.


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## Instg8ter (Sep 28, 2010)

was it always a 4 speed?....pinion angle may be off if they switched trans and driveshaft.


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## 68greengoat (Sep 15, 2005)

Body bushings may be shot and not giving you enough clearance between the tunnel and the yoke. I had the same problem b/4 replacing the bushings...... By having a 2nd passenger it's squishing the bushings even more providing a smaller gap. Any decent bump, I bet, makes it knock...


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## LeMansChaser (Mar 13, 2012)

Wow, thanks for the quick responses. Yes it is an original 4 speed Instg8ter (original transmission, matching numbers 326). 68greengoat, you are correct a good bump will give me a quick know, that is a good call and something I will look into right away. The big question for me is, is this something a first timer can take on??? I think so but time will tell. Also would us suggest replacing all the body mounts (just some), the core support mounts or or both? Thanks again for all of your help.


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## 68greengoat (Sep 15, 2005)

Replace them all. You can do it yourself. The biggest issue if the nuts break loose and spin. A common area for that to happen are the mounts behind the front wheels. I "loosened" them all then started replacing them one side and one bushing at a time. You need to jack under one side of the floor pans to raise the body so you can pull the old bushings out. Jack just enough to slide out the bushing. Once you finish one side, the other side will go twice as fast...


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## 69Goatee (Aug 14, 2009)

Sounds like a broken motor mount to me. Best way to check iS to pop the hood, set the park brake, get in and take off in first. You don't have to even move the car, just watch to see how far the engine torques over. The drivers side should rise an inch or two, any more and you got a worn or broken mount. The trans mount under the tailshaft is probaly broken too. If you can't see under the edge of the hood, have a buddy watch it for you.


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## LeMansChaser (Mar 13, 2012)

Thanks 69Goatee. I think 68greengoat hit it on the head. I climbed under the car and found 8 mounts (4 on each side). The uppers all look like someone sat on a 3 week old doughnut. They are probably compressed to 1/3" tops and cracked bad, the lowers don't look much better. I'm looking to order the kit off performanceyears.com and I'm not 100% sure what to order. I'm looking at part number RPU271K (http://py.prohosting.com/catalogs/gtocat.pdf) , if that is the right kit then there are way more mounts then what I found. Do you know where I can find an explosion drawing of the undercarriage? I obviously want to make sure I replace all the mounts, washers and bots.


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## 68greengoat (Sep 15, 2005)

Looks like the right kit. Basically, you just need to decide, looks like you might have already, whether you want rubber or poly bushings. I went with the poly. They're like hockey pucks. Stiffens the ride, cuts down on body roll. Yet, doesn't ride like a lumber wagon.

Even tho it sounds like you need to replace your bushings regardless, check those mounts as earlier mentioned by 69goatee. That was the first thing I looked at. Could be muliple issues. Wont hurt to look to be sure........


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## LeMansChaser (Mar 13, 2012)

so the project is going well; however, I have one that is just spinning. I'm guessing this is the issue with the nuts breaking loose. Any ideas how to get that bad boys out?...

I wanted to go ahead and change out the mounts on one side and when I jack up the car the body doesn't separate from the frame. Any ideas?


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## 68greengoat (Sep 15, 2005)

The body isn't seperating from the frame probably because you haven't raised it enough to take the tension totally out of the springs. As you raise the body, the frame will follow until the springs fully extend. When I did mine I thought,"what the heck" until I realized what was going on..

Maybe give more details on the one that "spins" so somebody with a '66 can help you out...


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## FlambeauHO (Nov 24, 2011)

Give the position and or a pic of the one that spins.


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## LeMansChaser (Mar 13, 2012)

Thanks again 68greengoat. I will give that a try in the morning. I thought the exact same thing so I just backed it off and figured I would get back at it in the morning. I kept thinking maybe there are more then just the body mounts I need to loosen. 

FlambeauHO, the spinning mount is on the driver side just behind the rear wheel well. If I were to give it a position moving from the back to front (the very rear mount being #1) I would call it position #2. I will get a picture tomorrow. I did check and see if I could get access to it from the trunk and I couldn't find a way. Thanks


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## LeMansChaser (Mar 13, 2012)

GOOD NEWS I got all but a couple body mounts changed out. The second body mount from the back (#2) on the driver side is still spinning and for that reason I couldn't get the car body separated from the frame enough to remove the #1 , #2 or #3 body mounts; therefore they stayed  (for now) The GOODER News, the yoke knocking has stopped. I need to have a few more passengers to make suer it completely curried the problem but the initial assessment is looking good.

I'll try and get some pictures of the car up in the next couple days, seems like a great place to keep track of the transformation. 

Thanks for all of the help


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