Motor Mounts! How difficult!?

They are definitely challenging. I changed my motor mounts last fall. I'm a GM mechanic and did the job at my dealership, on a lift and it still took me about 5 hours. I used an engine support fixture, loosened the subframe, and just lowered it a few inches. Seemed to be the easiest way to tackle it. I also removed the starter and the steering shaft. Getting the new mounts in and lined up was the hardest part. I don't want to discourage you but I can't imagine doing that job without a lift, but then again, I know there are people on this forum that have done it in their driveways, so I guess it's possible. Anyways, you should definitely get them taken care of before you damage your oil pan. You'll be amazed how much nicer the car feels and drives too. Good luck.
 
Frank,

They are pretty easy. Once you have done them once its all down hill from there. Its just time consuming since everything on the front of the engine has to come out. I have done it on 4 SCs so far one of which was Bill Evanoff's 90 SC last weekend.

Shane
 
Not too bad, IMO. Took me about 5 hrs on the floor with a crummy set of hand tools. Prolly knock it out in a couple of hours on a lift with air tools. There's a write up on it around here somewhere that I followed.

Just remembered that I copied it. I don't remember who wrote it. FWIW I did NOT remove the knock sensor, though I occasionally wished that I had :)

It was an adventure but did not have to be. 94 SC 5 speed.

I notice the oil pan sitting on the cross member - driver side;
rubbing but no hole yet. I guess it's time to you know what...

I'm about to go on vacation so it's a great time drop my
car at a shop; I normally do all the work- but this job
sounded like a good job to farm out.


Well, my "Knowledgable SC Mechanic" in central Ca.
wanted $600 bucks just for labor! This was after we
talked in person for 45 minutes about SC's. Nice guy but
I think I'll pay myself $600 bucks this weekend.


I did this in my not flat driveway. Alone. You must use 1/2" tools;
ratchet/breaker bar + 10" extenstion, one u-joint, and 6 pnt. 13 mm.
sockets (deep and normal). All mount bolts are 13 mm except for an
extra (15 mm) jam nut on the passenger side. I highly recomend spraying
down all the bolts with something before trying to remove them, a few of
them were about to break durring removal, it was nerve wracking! It was not
easy to spray them either. Also, I found it quite handy to wrap my u-joint with
tape so I could aim it...


Remove the 6 screws that hold the plastic cowling under the wipers. Pull off the
plastic gaskett the length of the hood. This is to make wake way for the
engine you are about to jack up.


Remove the front wheels and get it up high enough to be comfy underneath;
you're going to spend some time down there. A couple of Large stands will do.

Get under and jack up the engine with a block of wood beneath the oil pan -
go slow and check it out - don't break anything!


Driver Side (5 mount bolts)

I started by removing the Power Pack, Alt., Pwr Str pully, then
loosened and slid forward the entire accsesory bracket with P.S pump,
but this was NOT Necessary! This gave me a look at a the bottom through
bolt, but I had to put the bracket back on the studs to get access to the bolt.
I used a 10'' extension - no wobblies or U-joints required for this bolt. This
Could Have Been Done Without Removing Anything!!!


2 bolts from front top bracket <-> engine are accessed through the wheel
well (wheel removed); U-joint and 10"++ ext. required. These puppies were
supper tight, I thought I was going to break the bolt so I sprayed them with
Break-Free and took a break.


Now remove the steering joint (2 bolts).
The top bracket rear <=> engine bolt is easy to see and access from below -
start getting comfortable down there.
The bottom bracket to frame bolt cannot be seen, but you can feel it
and get a 1/2 ratchet up there.

If the mount is not in two pieces, then cut it in 2, or take the 2 - (10 mm)
bolts out of the bottom bracket. The mount/bracket pieces should come out without much trouble.

You'll need a vice to get the mount loose from the top bracket.
Now bolt the new mount to the top bracket while it's in the vice.

Get back under the car, get the two pieces up there, then assemble the thing.
Now fight the mount back into position (not too bad).
Install the 3 top mount <-> engine bolts first!
Lower the engine slowly and pry the mount a little if neccessary to put in the last
two bolts. Done! Have another beer!

Passenger Side (4 mount bolts) :
Bolts are much easier to get to, but the mount is tougher to manipualte.
If at all possible, remove the knock sensor now and you won't have to do anything else!!!
Start draining the coolant. Remove the sensor with a 1/2 inch drive 1 +1/8 socket,
u-joint, and extenstion. If you don't do this you can "get by" by bending the
sensor shield or grinding it off halfway - believe me, it's much easier to drain
the coolant than to try to bend this shield without breaking the sensor -
Trust me on this one. I broke my 1/2" u-joint trying to remove this bad boy, a
nd had to bend/grind off the shield halfway (yea I got an angle grinder under there, it was neat).

Remove the bottom through bolt with 10" extenstion from below front.
Remove the highest top bracket front <-> engine bolt
, via the wheel well.
Remove the (15 mm) jam nut and grounding cables from lower front top bolt
then remove the 13 mm stud, via the wheel well.
Remove the top rear bracket <-> engine bolt, easy to see and access from the bottom, rear.

Now dissassemble the mount and remove in two pieces from rear.

Assemble like the other side, get under the car, and get the two pieces up there.
Bolt it together (if you like this, just wait) and muscle that thing around (one hand
from the back and from the front of the cross member, get a pry bar handy and put
the children inside for this one). This was the hardest part of the job for me
because the knock sensor was still in place.
The rest is gravy.

The job was a pain, but if I had to do it again I could do it much faster.
I'd say both sides in 3 /12 hours if nothing else broke...
It was worth $600 bucks to do it myself, and have it done right.
 
I've discovered it's a lot easier if you have two people doing it. Taking the parts off the top of the engine to access the mounts isn't hard - just aggravating. However on my 94 the mount to block bolts were insanely tight. I broke both a swivel and a socket (after soaking with liquid wrench and heating with a torch) removing the back passenger side mount to block bolt. I had the socket on a swivel, with various extensions. I'd put the socket on the bolt and hold it on with my left hand, while holding the rachet with a long breaker bar with my right, all the while laying on my back with my head underneath the starter. It's much easier to have someone standing beside the car to apply the leverage to the rachet while you make sure everything on the swivel-socket-bolt stays where it's supposed to.
 
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