motor mount install?

tim281

New Member
Dec 18, 2005
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Portland, OR
Is changing out the motor mounts supposed to be a PITA? I just spend over two hours and didn't finish the job. I was able to get the old ones out but couldn't get the new ones in yet. I have a question hopefully someone who has changed them could answer:

-Should the new mounts just drop in without any wrestling? I must have not jacked up the engine enough, because I had to wreslte them around and still didn't get them installed. I do have a MM strut tower brace that will limit the amount I can jack up the engine. I am wondering if you are supposed to have the engine up high enough to just easily install the new mounts...if so, then I may have to remove the strut brace.
 
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you dont have to remove the shroud i did mine with out removing it and i had no problems. give it one more pump on the jack and it should slide right it.
 
Looks like I will probably be removing the strut brace, I think I bottomed out on the distributor cap yesterday and was about a 1/2 inch from the fan reaching the top of the shroud.
Thanks for the info, I will remove the brace and jack it up pretty high today. This should do the trick.

BTW, those bolts were pretty tight on the engine. I soaked them 3 times with penetrating oil and then have to use a 2.5 ft pipe breaker. I was sweating it thinking I was going to twist off a bolt, but they all came out eventually.
 
OK. I jacked up the engine until the fan hit the shroud and was able to get both the mounts into position and attached.
However, the mounts I am using are "Anchor" brand I believe and they have a locating boss on the mount interface surface. The passenger side dropped right down now problem with the boss locating in properly in the alignment cutout on the chassis pad. But the driver's side boss cutout in the chassis is much smaller and I can't get the mount's boss to proper drop into the cutout.
The funny thing is that neither of the factory ford mounts had locating bosses.
Did anyone have trouble lining up the mount bosses and are their any tricks? I am figuring I may have to drop the exhaust pipes so I can try to move the engine back a bit or something.
Or I could just put out the mount and grind off the boss on the driver's side?
 
OK. I jacked up the engine until the fan hit the shroud and was able to get both the mounts into position and attached.
However, the mounts I am using are "Anchor" brand I believe and they have a locating boss on the mount interface surface. The passenger side dropped right down now problem with the boss locating in properly in the alignment cutout on the chassis pad. But the driver's side boss cutout in the chassis is much smaller and I can't get the mount's boss to proper drop into the cutout.
The funny thing is that neither of the factory ford mounts had locating bosses.
Did anyone have trouble lining up the mount bosses and are their any tricks? I am figuring I may have to drop the exhaust pipes so I can try to move the engine back a bit or something.
Or I could just put out the mount and grind off the boss on the driver's side?

they can be tight dude. I use a big peice of pipe on my ratchett to torque that stuff down. My energy suspensions are a tight fit and thats what i did just yesterday when installing my engine to send those babies home.
 
Good Point. I have a pipe that I will cinch them down with when I can get them aligned properly. I know those enegry suspension mounts also have a boss that protrudes off the surface, did you have to do anything special to get it aligned before you tightened them down?
 
Good Point. I have a pipe that I will cinch them down with when I can get them aligned properly. I know those enegry suspension mounts also have a boss that protrudes off the surface, did you have to do anything special to get it aligned before you tightened them down?

no man, not really. the one side seemed to drop right in and the other side( passenger side i beleive) didnt and after a put the pipe and wrench on, she went in there pretty good even thouggh it was directly lined up. it still found its way in becuase the nubs are rounded off. It didnt exactly just pop in either. it torqued its way in.
 
The mounting boss is over too far to just torque it down on mine. Check out the picture. You can see that Boss needs to move over a lot to get in that hole on the chassis mounting pad.
I tried using one of those hand activated C-Clamps with the engine jacked up and I still couldn't get the mount to clock enough. I am pretty sure there is not frame damage or anything going on with the chassis.
I am going to try to loosen the bolts on the engine and see if I can wedge it in there as I drop the engine down.
It sounds odd, but I think my exhaust piping maybe pushing everything forward the way it is welded up. I bought the car with a flowmaster cat back on it and it is welded up at the mufflers, I think it is too long in the section that goes to the h-pipe.
 

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I just replaced my motor mounts this week and originally bought the Anchor brand mounts from Napa. I did myself a big favor and returned them and bought the energy suspension mounts. They made my engine tilt after I put them on so that is why I bought the ES mounts. Well worth the money and Napa took back the Anchor mounts after I complained enough about them. Another recommendation you could do is to loosen up the nuts on the transmission mount so the engine/tranny may be able to move freely. Good luck and I am sure you will get it.
 
The transmount....I forgot about that. I did replace the transmount a few weeks ago before I did the engine mounts. I bet the engine was shifted due to bad engine mounts when I locked down the bolt on the transmount. I think you may have solved the problem.

1. Now you got me a little concerned about the engine tilt. When you say the anchor mounts tilted your engine...did you mean it was tilted in the axis of the driveshaft or in the front to back direction of the car?

2. I already replace the trans mount with a rubber mount so I would probably try to buy the ford OEM vert mounts if the anchors are really a piece of crap. Or maybe I shouldn't care too much about not matching all the mount materials.

Thanks for the advice.
 
My engine tilted downwards towards the drivers side to much. Just the overall quality of the Anchor brand was very poor (made in India). I am almost positive that Anchor motor mounts are the only "parts store" brand anyone sells. Ford mount would be a great replacement but I went ahead and spent the same amount of money and bought the ES mounts for the extra durability. Hope this helps!
 
I loosened the transmounts up, jacked up the engine, and then pushed on the intake to try and move the engine. I was able to get the mount much closer to seating now. The small boss is about 50% in the hole when I push the mount with my c-clamp. This is tons better than before, but I still couldn't seal the deal and get the boss to seat properly. I think I may have to get another person to help in order to get it to pop in properly. It is tough trying to wedge the mount and also loosen the jack to lower it down.
I think I can get there with some more work, but wow....this job is a total PITA.
I may try to get a "come-along" tie down to pull the engine while I let the jack down or something.
 
Doing a job like that by yourself bites... call a buddy, get some beers and you'll have it popped in in no time... probably the only thing holding you up now is the exhaust and that should move without too much trouble.
 
I got it done today after work. Here is some great information if you ever have this problem. I bought a racheting tie down from the auto parts store for 10 bucks. I wrapped the tie down through some holes in the k-member, then I wrapped it around some of the engine's front accessory brackets. I jacked up the engine when racheted tension into the tie down. This made sure the engine would line up properly and not fall forward when dropped.
Next I used two socket extensions as a pusher bar to wedge and bias the motor mount into an aligned boss position. I used a hand activated C-clamp on the end of the socket extensions to ensure the motor mount was not going to squirm or move on the way down.
Dropped the engine and it lined up properly.....wow...finally.
I would imagine different cars have different tolerances and motor mount install issues, but I must say this job was 3x harder than I anticipated and require some invention to accomplish by myself....and I have done lots of car work over the years.
 
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