The chrome bumper control bracket (circled). The flange on the back of the bracket will contact the mounting plate against the chassis bracket after a small amount of forward movement of the engine, preventing any further movement of the fan towards the radiator. Image from Moss Europe
Chrome bumper restraint bracket, spot the subtle difference to the drawing above! The two holes on the left go behind the bracket attached to the engine front plate, on the mount studs. The hole in the flange is a bit of a mystery, it may be suitable to mount the carb vent/overflow pipes clip with a nut and bolt (although the correct place for it with HS carbs is to a bracket (NLA) mounted on a stud or under a bolt screwed into the block where the mechanical fuel pump goes on non-MG applications). Interestingly the image above shows the early non-positive vent pipe being clipped to the rear-most of two bolts through the blanking plate for the mechanical pump. I'd wondered why the bracket for the vent/overflow pipes was such a complicated shape, instead of the clip being held by one of the bolts directly as on rubber bumper cars. The bracket was obviously designed to fit round this early breather, which was only used until 1964, after that the clip could have attached directly to that rear bolt!
Ven't/overflow pipes which had been attached to the chassis side of the mount ...
... so moving the pipes on their hoses as the engine rocked. Also shows the mechanical fuel pump blanking plate (arrowed), used for mounting the original crankcase pipe and carb pipe bracket.
Restraint bracket mounted ...
... limiting the forward movement of the engine to about 1/4", with the carb pipes attached to it using the convenient hole so they move with the engine. I opted for this point rather than a pump blanking plate bolt, as they proved pretty tight working from above and I didn't want to risk starting an oil leak (OK it looks oily already but it doesn't drip).
Rubber bumper
Looking up into the chassis bracket from below. The locating plate is fitted so that the hole is in the lower of the two possible positions, to ensure the mount stud is near the bottom of the chassis bracket slot. (Drawings of a V8 but the same principle must be applied to 4-cylinder cars).
The rubber mount and chassis bracket from above. There must be sufficient spacers to prevent the stud lying in the bottom of the slot, but not so many that the locating plate cannot be fitted the correct way round.
Dimensions for fabricating a spacer (applicable to V8 right-hand side)
Showing the common point of fracture on left-hand 4-cylinder rubber bumper brackets (arrowed). Image from Moss Europe
V8 bracket orientation: The bolts securing the bracket to the block must be behind the stud on the mount that goes into the chassis bracket. putting the engine in the rear-most of the two possible positions. Photo by A Goldup, but juggled to get the correct logical orientations
Showing the bracket and mount in context with the engine. Photo by Mike Howlett
Showing the stud in the lower of the two possible positions when attached to the crankcase bracket. Note this is an old mount where the 'eared' or oval back-plate of the mount has been ripped off.
