Anyone chicken out or surrender on installing the rear motor mount?

[Brett San Diego]

I wasn't confident in my non-SnapOn 1/4 in tools to put 50 lb-ft on them and maybe more trying to loosen the original mount. I removed the left side sway bar bracket reaching through the wheelwell with a breaker bar and ratchet and from underneath using a flex head ratchet. It's a tight area to work and small hands help. The sway bar can then be moved out of the way for a straight shot with 3/8 drive tools. Yes, there's extra time involved but no broken tools.
Brett

[goldxc70]

I wasn't confident in my non-SnapOn 1/4 in tools to put 50 lb-ft on them and maybe more trying to loosen the original mount. I removed the left side sway bar bracket reaching through the wheelwell with a breaker bar and ratchet and from underneath using a flex head ratchet. It's a tight area to work and small hands help. The sway bar can then be moved out of the way for a straight shot with 3/8 drive tools. Yes, there's extra time involved but no broken tools.
Brett

As I said ... torture

Seriously, I had the same concern but didn't have any issues with torque.

[perkinscl]

I surrendered! I had my front hydraulic mount go and been driving with it like this for the past year. I bought both hydraulic mounts and tackled it yesterday. Front mount was pretty easy once I figured out the combination of extensions and swivels. The top nut on the rear mount was easy once I removed the strut brace. Then I got stuck on that bottom nut on the rear mount. I think I could have gotten if I didn't have the IPD sway bar, it was too big to work around (or if I had a lift). I tried for several hours with every combination of tools that I have, couldn't get it to work. Maybe with a 1/4" swivel, my 3/8" was hitting the sway bar.

The rear was fine, I had just planned on doing while underneath. My road test yielded good results, much smoother.

[pqmagic70]

After having read this post and watching the FCP video (helpful but seems to be missing some aspects in editing) I decided to tackle the motor mounts. I did the front and side one day and saved the dreaded rear one for today. I was surprisingly able to use a stubby (5" total length) box wrench and a short piece of tubing to remove the top bolt. I had beaten down one end of the tubing to make it slightly oblong to fit over the open end of the wrench, cut it down in length where I was able to side it over the exhaust downpipe and on to the wrench and left just what I could in additional length to add leverage while still clearing the downpipe. It took a while with the fine threads and limited swing room to completely remove the bolt but it didn't require removal of anything else and I was able to just stay under the car. After that I was able to fit a 3/8" socket on a 3/8" swivel and an extension to reach the bottom bolt by going between the back side of the frame member and the sway bar. Then I loosened the top and bottom bolts on the front mount, the two frame bolts on the side mount, the trans strut mount bolts and the long bolt from the top mount at the end of the cams so that I could lift the motor. I used a longer piece of 4"x4" that spanned both the trans and the oil pan. That allowed me to lift engine enough to easily remove the mount and install the new one. After lining up the heat shield and prong I installed the top nut and left it just a little loose to allow some adjustment of the mount as I lowered the engine. I slowly lowered the engine while checking the front, rear, trans and side mounts to make sure everything lined up. After that just make sure that every bolt or nut that had to be loosened was tightened. Not easy but not as difficult as I was expecting. Thanks everyone for sharing their thoughts and procedures. All that real world incite is extremely valuable.

[diggity]

After having read this post and watching the FCP video (helpful but seems to be missing some aspects in editing) I decided to tackle the motor mounts. I did the front and side one day and saved the dreaded rear one for today. I was surprisingly able to use a stubby (5" total length) box wrench and a short piece of tubing to remove the top bolt. I had beaten down one end of the tubing to make it slightly oblong to fit over the open end of the wrench, cut it down in length where I was able to side it over the exhaust downpipe and on to the wrench and left just what I could in additional length to add leverage while still clearing the downpipe. It took a while with the fine threads and limited swing room to completely remove the bolt but it didn't require removal of anything else and I was able to just stay under the car. After that I was able to fit a 3/8" socket on a 3/8" swivel and an extension to reach the bottom bolt by going between the back side of the frame member and the sway bar. Then I loosened the top and bottom bolts on the front mount, the two frame bolts on the side mount, the trans strut mount bolts and the long bolt from the top mount at the end of the cams so that I could lift the motor. I used a longer piece of 4"x4" that spanned both the trans and the oil pan. That allowed me to lift engine enough to easily remove the mount and install the new one. After lining up the heat shield and prong I installed the top nut and left it just a little loose to allow some adjustment of the mount as I lowered the engine. I slowly lowered the engine while checking the front, rear, trans and side mounts to make sure everything lined up. After that just make sure that every bolt or nut that had to be loosened was tightened. Not easy but not as difficult as I was expecting. Thanks everyone for sharing their thoughts and procedures. All that real world incite is extremely valuable.

This was about my experience. As others have mentioned, I was surprised how far I had to raise the engine to get the rear out. Everything seems to be getting a little torqued around .. wiring, control arms, etc. .. was a little unnerving, but I was committed at that point! Cheers

[br0dy]

This thread is giving me nightmare flashbacks of my power steering pressure hose job. I was jacking up the engine a bit to gain clearance and the rear mount literally sheared in half and spilled stinky hydraulic oil all over my driveway. Somehow after snaking the new one in and fastening it the remainder of the mounts on the car were "off", meaning I couldn't even line up the bolt holes.

After battling it for nearly an hour I finally said to hell with it and used a 6 foot piece of 2x4 and pried the entire engine up from the front rad support and miraculously all of the bolt holes lined up. Never again will I do that job myself. Any steering rack/hose replacement job necessitates a vehicle hoist and GOOD air tools. Neither of which I have.