Changing Motor and Tranny Mounts

Just got my 89 not to long ago. Needs a little bit of work but nothing major. Next project is changing the motor mounts and tranny mount. Is it pretty much a straight forward job, or is there anything special or little tricks I should about changing either one? I've changed motor mounts in other cars, so what I'm trying to get at is, Is it a straight forward job like most cars or what?

Thanks
SAM

very easy, just have a good hydrolic jack to adjust the engine hieght up/down, to get the bolts back in, also for the tranny, i keep one bolt on very loose on the stock skid, so i wont have to take it all the way down. place the jack to support at the yoke of transfercase for the tranny mount, and with a piece of wood on the oil pan for the engine mounts....


enjoy

Will do thanks!

I know on my '97 and my friends '91 we both had to do some trimming on the motor mount on the driver's side. The casting coming from the motor is usually too narrow for the mount to slide all the way in.....Fix is to trim the bushing on the mount a little or to grind a little bit on the casting.

Thanks for the tip. I guess we will see what happens.

Keep an eye on the transfer case linkage. If you drop the tranny too far, you can tweak the alignment of the linkage, and cause difficult shifting of the transfer case, or it may tend to pop out of 4 wheel, atleast in high range.

Steve

I just did the same job on my 2.5L I4 w/AX-5 tranny. The I6 may be a little different.

The driver's side motor mount was torn clean in half, I didn't notice, since the weight of the motor kept it together, till lifting it out and top part of the rubber section of the mount fell out of the mount altogether.

Straight forward on side motor mounts. For the Passenger Side mount I had to pull the alternator off its mounts (but not the wiring) to move it aside enough to pound out the thru bolt on that mount. Make sure to unbolt the mount from the frame first, then jack the motor up enough that it actually lifts the mount from the frame a bit, that way your sure there is no weight on the mount and the thru bolt will come out with just a little tapping.

I had a little more trouble with the trans mount, I have 2WD BTW. It probably would have been easier to support the trans and drop the crossmember. I tried jacking the trans up, it will only go about an 1.5" before it hits the trans tunnel, if you jack to much you could damage the shifter on top of the trans. I ended up removing the plate under the trans that connects to the mount, and pulling it out with the mount and swapping mounts on the plate and putting the plate back in. Only 3 bolts for the plate and it does take a little bit of tilting and rocking to work it in and out between the trans and crossmember, but it can be done fairly easy.

Might be just easier to support the trans with the jack and drop the crossmember for a few minutes to swap mount, provided the crossmember unbolts without too much trouble.

Just finished replacing all three on my 96 sport. Protect oil pan for sure with wood block and only do one at a time by jacking up just enough to take weight off mount. Remove air box to gain work space on drivers side and be sure not to damage sensor on passenger's side. If you have a small gap between new mount and the engine bracket, use an appropriate washer to make it a snug fit. When replacing the rear mount, be sure to support the crossmember brace from underneath if doing it without help. I think it took me just under two hours due to some difficulty with the passenger side mount and an off-kilter lock nut but realistically an hour would be correct under normal conditions. Good luck and be sure to have the hand cleaner with pumice handy.

On the pass. side you have to remove the oil filter adapter to get the bolt out of the mount. There are three "O" rings in the adapter, you shoud replace them, save you a leak later. Be careful when putting it back together, don't tighten it so much you crack it.

Reverse the passenger side bolt so it goes front to back. You'll then need to tilt the oil adapter back a hair, just turn until it stops, maybe an 1/8 inch. The bolt will barely clear the filter.
Makes life a little easier next time around.