Hey guys, I was looking into changing the motor mounts in my car to make the headers fit right. I was talking around and they said it would be a huge nightmare to tackle this and that something makes some kinda trouble that takes hours. Whats all involved and how long would it take me. Thanks so much guys.

 

Any help is more than none, please help guys I think this part of my car is important.

 

Well I just got done doing mine yesturday. My motor was out but here's the deal. There's a main center bolt going horizontally to hold the upper and lowers together I removed that when I pulled the motor out. If the motor is in you'll need to hoist or jack the motor up from under the pan with a block of wood so it's just barely supporting it. Take out the center bolt and jack it up further. The trans should hopefully support the motor some to keep it from flopping around. The uppers are bolted to the block with 3 bolts. There's the easy part.

The part everyone hates is the lower clamshells. There held on with 3 15 mm bolts on each side that go down from the top and a washer (looks copper) and a nut on the underside. I had the car up on ramps with the motor out so it was easy for me. I already had the upper mounts off just leaving me the clamshell lowers.

Tools used: saftey goggles, 15 mm open/closed end wrench, 15mm socket with ratchet and various length extension, light, wd-40, crescent wrench or vice grips (breaker bar for ratchet), towel, and 3 ft piece of electrical wire.

1.) Spray them down with wd-40 on topside and let them sit a few minutes.

2.)Then take your ratchet with the breakerbar attached and from the topside put it on the bolt and crank it over. It won't take it out but it helps to break them loose so you're not fighting the rust too.

3.) Now take your electrical wire and tie to to the middle of your open/closed end wrench. This helps if you drop it in the K-member or A-arm you can just pull it back out and don't have to spend valueable time fishing for it.

4.) Now with all Bolts broken loose put on your goggles and get under the car. There's rust and dirt everywhere on mine so I was constantly dropping crap on myself.

5.) Using the light, spray the nuts down with wd-40 let soak a few minutes.

6.) Take your towel and cram it into the cross member opening from the A-arm pivot off the crossmember. This should hopefully stop nuts and washers from falling into the crossmember and yet again costing you time to fish them out.

7.) I perfer to do the lower single bolt first, but it doesn't really matter. For it put the ratchet on the topside bolt and used the open end wrench on the lower side. If you can't get it to the grab properly and wedge up against an A-arm so when you turn it with the ratchet it loosens you probably have an chance to use the ratchet at the bottom. I used the open end on the passenger side while the driver I couldn't get it at the right angle so I used closed end up top and ratchet below with extension. You might need your breaker bar again, because mine were coated in rust. Remove your nut and washer from area. If it falls pull the towel back at a downward angle with any luck it should pull the fallen pieces back out of crossmember. Put the towel back in once done.

8.) Next move on to the higher bolts. I found it easiest to use the ratchet topside and the open/closed wrench from the bottom. There's about a 2" access hole in the A-arm towards the back. You'll see it for sure once under there. You more or less have to put the whole wrench in there. My open/closed had an angle-end on the boxed end. So I had to have that pointed downward at the ground and use the open end to get it to fit in there. This is where the wire comes in handy. If you drop it don't freak out just use the wire to wiggle and pull it back over to the access hole. You just want to get the wrench on these and use the ratchet from the topside to loosen them. I found it easiet to use the light from the inside of the wheel through the shock to see the area and then look from the A-arm pivot off the crossmember (same place you used to remove the lower nut). I also perfer to do the closet one to the access hole first. I found it gave me more room to work on the other one.

9.) That should get you all 3 off that side. You can then take off the clamshell with the 3 bolts attached and move to the next side.

All in all it probably took me an hour or so remove the lowers once I figured out how to do it. I've heard some people say 30 minutes per bolt. If you're spending 3 hours on it you have way to much time on your hands.
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Oh for the install I suspect it's about the same, but people say use grease or RTV on the washers and nuts so they don't come apart. I planned on doing that and taping it to the wrench so I don't drop it.

Others say use sertnuts, which are basically a special rivet that is threaded. You insert the sleeve and use the tool to rivet it into the hole then just bolt down the mounts. The rivet is the nut from then on. Easy to do but I haven't really looked into that so far. It appears the inserts are only about a $1 a piece though.

 

Bleh anyone else have any horror stories lol?

 

Its gonna take u a couple hours :-)

Is not the worst, its not the best.

U have access thru the frame if you look at the springs. U can literally go thru them at one point to get the right angle.

Like he said, if using wrenches, tie something to it.

Wrenches are a real PIA to use however.

Go get the correct sized flex socket and use it with some elec tape on the flez joint.

If my memory serves correctly I use 2 wrenches to get one bolt out and the other two I used a wrench on top and flex socket on the bottom.

Also some dum dum or equivelant in the bottom of the socket end will help hold things together as you take out the nuts/bolts.

When going to install, do the reverse, tape the nuts/bolts to the socket and work them slowly into the holes.

Take a good look at it before you start and you will understand what we are talking about. also will help to take off the front tires so u can run an extension in thru the spring.

I've done three this way and all have went fairly smooth, just expect a couple hours or more(depending on your won abilities). Do not lift up on the harmonic balancer. Either lift it from the top or use a block of wood on the pan.

later
Jeremy

 

On the reinstall, you can just put the bolts in the other way - rather than trying to get them up through the holes the hard way - It really makes no difference which direction they go in, as long as they get tightened.

 

I did mine last night. I ended up pulling the springs. It was easy to get to then. Good thing I did it this way, I found out I need new rubber brake lines.

I might as well replace the a-arm bushings and ball joints while im at it.

I sure dont want to go to the track with bad brake lines.