I figured out why my car doesn’t sit lower in the rear. The transmission isn’t mounted as it was in the original car.
My car had a type 1 nosecone; the nosecone on a 519 was different, with the hockey stick exiting 1.125” lower down (just like a type 2 nose cone). The bell housing side was solid mounted, instead of having urethane mounts.
Original 550 (note the urethane mounts on the bell housing side)
My car...
Interestingly, Rancho makes a nosecone that utilizes the old VW Donut bushing used in early split beetles (and the 550 spyder). This was meant to allow people with older Busses and Beetles to use a synchromesh transmission in their cars.
As much luck would have it, the company that makes them is moving right now, so there were none to be had. Thankfully, Mike Herbert from Rancho got one from the owner and put it together for me.
Combined with the mount above from Rainer Cooney (meant for the donut mount), I’ll be moving the whole transmission upward. I’ll also be lengthening my exhaust headers, and extending the tin on the bottom of the heads downward (FML).
Rainer also sent me the mounts for the bell housing side (see below). I got the urethane kit from Devcon and will be making my own mounts. Wish me luck. This car may very well kill me before I get it right.
