The Official 356Talk Forum

I have an August of 1956 T-1 57143. I own the factory service manual and the factory parts manual. The parts manual lists a front trans mount with covers (retaining cup 644.20.505) where as the service manual notes no cover. The owners manual photo does not show a cover just the mounts.

Does anyone know when the front trans mount covers (what the parts manual refers to as retaining cups) were first utilized? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks -chip

Here are some pics from the parts catalog, owners manual, and service manual.

Here is the cover note the radius and radius shape of the bottom edge,
where there is not a cover the sharp edge of the mount is evident.

Question:
Was this the cover provided with the 644 transmission at some point? (From what I can tell the split case transmission did not have this cover).

Two more pics without covers taken from the service manual.

I think all the two-mount trans have the covers. The pictures are rather compelling, though, as they clearly show no covers.
I am not, however, familiar with the early cars.
I bet one of our trans experts knows ....

Chip Flor wrote:Was this the cover provided with the 644 transmission at some point? (From what I can tell the split case transmission did not have this cover).

Chip, the covers did not appear until 58/59, so your car did not have them when new, but you can add them if you want to.
Their main purpose was to minimize mount flexing.

Thank you Jon.

As it turns out the original parts photo I showed above was not a 644 but rather a 716 trans. Sorry for that mistake.

Enclosed is the 644 parts diagram without the cover. Which verifies that 644's started out without them (which is where my trans lies in the group).
As you so noted.

However, according to Vic Skirmant's article: Transmission Identification/Now for a short history on transmissions, the 716 showed up in December of 1958 (which by the parts diagram would include a cover).

Regrettably the addtion of the cover transition is not seamless from 644 to 716.

The next pic is from a Neil Goldberg's book. Neil's T-2 644 was born in April of 1958. As the cover is present in the photos it proves that the 644's had the cover prior to April 1958.

The only question is.... how far back did they add covers in the two year run of 644 transmissions.

-chip

I'm pretty sure that the cover debuted in 1957; can't tell you exactly when.

Chassis 100 017 (Build Date 25/03/57) did NOT have covers

When we fitted them - it was then NOT possible to set the Toe-in

We elongated the slotted holes in the Swing arms to enable us the set it correctly

Thanks, Mike. Good to know.