Howdy all,
So I decided to finally tackle the major tune-up on my 85 IROC, well major for me. I have never owned an F-Body, so I figured this was as good as time as ever to start learning. I did change the oil and spark plugs last summer, but that is a no-brainier and pretty much e same for most cars. Here is what I managed to get done.....
Oil change Rotella-T 15-40 White jug (was told Mobile-1 synthetic 10-40 was no good for my LB9)
New plug wires (Duralast OEM Replacement) completely routed incorrectly from previous owner
New Rotor (Duralast Gold)
New Coil (Duralast OEM)
New Destributor Cap (Duralast Gold)
This was a great opportunity to look around the engine bay and underneath the engine/transmission area. I figured while the car was up on ramps I would look into the torque arm mount, as I recall hearing a "THUNK" on an aggressive 1-2 shift, and it looks like the bushing is shot. So that will be next on the list... At any rate it was a great day for learning on my IROC

 

The bushing, where you have the screwdriver, is fine. That's what it looks like when new, where it's split in half and comes apart. To the left side of that crack, the rubber is fastened to the little outer piece; to the right, it's fastened to the bigger inner piece.

Your problem is the trans mount. You can see in the pic that it's not even connected to itself anymore. Broke in half, as always. It's the rusty piece with flecks of black paint peeling off of it that looks kinda rectangular right below that bushing and a bit in front of it. You can see the gap where it's not even sitting straight on top of itself anymore, it's partly rotated and leaving a crack that's wider on the left but narrower on the right, at the bottom.

Change out the trans mount.

 

Loud thunk is a tranny mount. Trans hitting the floor pan axtually.

 

Learn something valuable here every day.

I would have thought that torque arm bushing was a goner.

 

Hey Sofa, you have quite an eye for detail!!! Thanks for posting this for me, I had no idea. This is why I love this site, so many great people with TONS & TONS of knowledge. I don't know what I would do with out you guys. So will my Haynes book tell me how to change it or should I search for a How To here on the forum?

 

you need to get the vehicle up. On ramps is fine but it is much easier if it's up on 4 jack stands.

place chunk of wood onto tranny pan and raise jack just so it's snug, not lifting

Then, on the tranny crossmember, undo the one nut which is what holds the tranny to the crossmember.

Lift up tranny as much as possible, undo the 2 bolts that hold on the mount, reverse process, you're done



I copied this from a thread...faster than writing it all

 

So would it be easier to drop the crossmember while supporting the tail of the tranny, or should I support it on the pan with a board? Also I checked Autozone and they only offer Poly, and I want to avoid any more vibrations than I already have, so I need to check around the other part stores and maybe JEGS and summit.

 

Well it was a great afternoon to be in the garage, so I grabbed up a new Energy Suspension polyurethane tranny mount and was surprised how easy it was!!! The only stumper was getting the crossmember reinstalled. There was no was it was going to fit because the new mount hung so much lower than the the OEM, I figured the parts guy grabbed the wrong package. This is when I remembered why I bought a new floor jack, my old Jack was natorious for "drifting" down, and the tranny managed to drop almost two inches!!!! So a few pumps later the tranny & mount was now above the crossmember and I was able to put all (4) bolts in without problem. So my only thought/concern was when putting the (4) crossmember bolts and the (2) tranny bolts, I used antisieze not thread lock, only because the bolts and passages seemed to have antisieze on them already. I did however use RED thread locker on the (1) bolt that went through the crossmember and into the new poly mount. Did I do this correctly or should I back out the crossmember bolts and add antisieze?

 

Then I had a tuff decision to make, what beer to drink after putting tools away? Thanks GROUPON, yup (5) 6-packs for $20.00!!!!!
Then I could not stand my front fenders sticking out past the door prominently, you know because some JACKWAD thought it was a good idea to Jack the car up in the mounting flange of the pinch weld. So a couple visegrips and a few minutes later...pretty close to where they need to be��

 

No thunk anymore, I hope??

 

Too many beers to find out tonight!!!! But I have to believe this will cure a few of the clunks. For the most part I have been trying to create a base-line for the wear items, next will be suspension, tierods, ball joints, center links, shocks/struts, and the various bushings, but I have all summer to do that (garage too cold to work in the winter)...

 

BUTT HAY: let's get to the REAL IMPORTANT part of working on a car and getting the problem handled.

Which beer did you choose?

 

my brothers 92 rs felt like a bucking horse whenever he'd take off when the trans mount went lol, I'll never forget the feeling

 

Shorts Brew Soft Parade
High gravity Ale fermented with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries
This is not as fruity as it sounds, and goes well with just about any dead animal cooked on an open flame

 

Hey Tyler I can only image what a wild ride that must have been! I know after I heard my tranny hit the trans tunnel I stopped driving aggressive , not sure what the noise was, but knew it wasn't a stock option...lol

 

Stock mount was toast! Someone jacked up the drivers side of my car like that too. I just want to straighten out the rocker tab.