I have the motor out of my car and was wondering how hard it is to change the motor mounts and what the best way of going about it is, all I have heard is that it is a pain in the butt, I was also thinking of changing them to polyurethane whats the pros and cons of doing this?

Thanks in advance, any info is greatly appreciated

 

I know someones done them before.

 

I posted the same question in the engine section earlier today and have not gotten any advice. I did a search and from what I can figure it is a pain but easliy do able. Everything leads to patience and perserverance. Good luck with yours, I will be doing mine this summer.

 

I just did them.....

hehehehehe....so i'll step up and answer.


24inch extension, and a 15mm swivel socket. Look around under the car for the three nuts "hidden" up in the crossmember. I found the most centered bolt holes the easiest to find since they were the lowest on the car. Then the other two top ones you must look up through the space in between the control arm and the crossmember to see them. I used a maglite over a flourescent bulb since I could point the light in a better direction. ultimately it seems someone else tried to remove the motor mounts before and rounded out one of the nuts on each side......

SOOO....out came

1. struts
2. brake lines
3. spring compressor
4. Control arm bolts,
5. Then I removed the struts and spindle since they were out of the car....in went new struts and control arm bushings(poly) since mine were shot.....

then came new ball joints and I have yet to put the control arms back in.

Basically a ROYAL pain in the butt, but I was proud of myself for disassembling the entire front suspension down to crossmember in under 2 hours. That comes to an hour each side. Fun fun fun

Now I can see all three nuts very easily and removed the motor mounts. YAY

if you guys have any more questions just let me know.

 

I plan to do my motor mounts this summer once I pull the engine. I was hoping to not have to remove the front suspension. I know how to do it but I don't want to Thanks for the advice.

 

i just did both mine yesturday - used a 15 mm wrench and duct taped the bolt to it facing directly up to get the passenger side top bolt which happens to be the biggest PITA bolt I've found on my car - took me 3 hours but i finally got it - the only way my friend who works at an eninge shop does it is the same way - all the others i got pretty quick with a snap on swivvel socket and a long extension - i did the drivers side and the 2 on passenger side in 40 mins

 

can you explain more about the duct taping the bolt to the wrench thing? I dont quit get what your saying.

Thanks for all the help guys I am gonna try to do it today.

 

I did mine a few months ago of course with the suspension off but made a huge mistake. The absolute best thing to do is buy new nuts and bolts and have someone tac weld the nuts onto the crossmember. This way if ever the time should come again that you need to remove them for any reason at all, you'll be able to do it from the top. Here's a pic of mine with Prothane mounts.

 

great idea. I'm going to do that when I change mine.

 

I am all for the welding on the inside, but when I looked into doing mine with the engine out of the car, I could barely get a wrench on the inner most nut. I can't imagine that I would be able to get a TIG torch head in there. If you know of someone that was able to accomplish this task or did it yourself, let me know what process you used and how the heck you did it. THanks for the pics and info. Keep it comin.

 

I read it somewhere on here a while back. I don't know anything about welding, but are you attemting this without the springs on the car?

 

just finished installing the solid mounts on my frame last weekend. did it the hard way, with the a arm in place, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. used a crow's foot with a swivel and extension for the bottom bolt, and I was able to put the wrench into the frame through that round hole underneath, behind the bolts. only took about an hour. but i did drop my crow's foot into the frame...

 

I have not attempted to do this yet, I may however. Probably not though (weld the nuts in place) since my stock mounts are not broken with 140000 miles on the clock. IF factory rubbers last that long, then the polys should be fine forever!! I bought a pair of the ES poly mounts back before I changed engines. Time was short and weather was not cooperating so we left the stockers be. I plan to pull my engine this summer and want to do the mounts then. If I have to take apart the front end I will, just don't really want to get that involved!! Thanks for the pics.

 

Just had the nuts welded to my crossmember today...YAY...only took "maybe" 15 minutes from start to finish with the control arms out of the way. not to bad at all if you ask me. I would recommend it to everyone else to do the same, i'm not going through that again.


now back to putting my suspension together again!!!

Steve

 

Hey guys I took mine out yesterday, they were not very hard, the motor is out but I think it would be close to the same with it in, I did not have to remove any suspension stuff or anything I used a 2 foot extension and a swivel 15 and for some of them I used a long snap on 15mm wrench to sneak through the frame. Let me know if anyone wants me to explain anything better, and thanks for all the help guys.

 

Wimps . Try doing it with a standard wrench and the suspension all in the way. Took probably a half hour a few years ago with the motor out (engine swap). The trick is having really long and strong fingers. A small hand just wouldn't cut it, you need to use the boxed end, just get it on and you'll be alright. Yes I dropped it a bunch of times but lucky for me my crossmember was FULL of dirt, not really sure how and I think it's time to clean it out....probably should have done that while the motor was out. Oh well, gives me another reason to pull the motor and clean up the engine bay.
The welding is a great idea. Too bad I didn't have access to a stick welder
Really though, it isn't as bad as people say it is. I WILL however tell you that fuel pumps ARE difficult. More so when it's by yourself. Good luck and you'll like the new mounts, I did, but then again mine came with a nice new motor