Question about motor mount location and a few other simple questions

[Chowder Head]

Hey guys, I'm installing my LT's and I need some help.

For some reason, I can't easily find the motor mounts. While under the hood, I finally found something that resembles it, but I want to make sure that's it before I muck with it. I snapped a picture of one that looks like that on the other side but it didn't come out that great. It looks exactly like this though.

Now if that's it, I still have a few questions. A lot of people mentioned they just loosened but not removed the mounts. How is this done? Do I need to take off both nuts shown in the picture, and sorta of thread the bolt that is holding it outwards? How will I know that I loosened it enough? After they are loosened, I can safely jack up the engine by the oil pan with a block of wood in between right?

Lastly, I'm working on the drivers side first and have read that it's best to undo the steering shaft for clearance since it's only help up by one bolt. I took that bolt off, but exactly how do I take the shaft off, or slide it to the side? It seems like removing that one bolt did absolutely nothing because I still can't budge, pull, or push it anywhere.

Any ideas guys?

Help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[Stanger007]

Loosen or remove the large nut on either motor mount (in the pictures). You'll have to be creative with a socket and extensions to get the driver's side one.

For the T5 you may just need to jack the engine up a bit (block of wood under oil pan). On my AODE I had to jack the engine up as high as it would go (with heads on and OFF). The T5 is worlds narrower than the AODE so you may have better luck.

I've put the longtubes in from both the top and bottom, see what works best for you.

For the steering shaft, remove the bolt and the shaft will push in towards the firewall. It collapses on itself. When reassembling it, make sure the wheels/steering is straight (very easy to line up if not)

Good luck,
Wes

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

I had a similar issue on my old DD, as far as the steering shaft goes. I just took a big flathead screwdriver and kinda pried between the steering box and the shaft, so it would slide. Gotta think, it's now a 13 year old car, so things that went together easily in the factory, won't come apart quite so easily now

 

[Chowder Head]

Oh, so just loosen the two big nuts on each motor mount and I should be good? Then I can jack up the motor as high as I want without a problem? Oh, and stupid question, I jack up the engine by placing a wood between the rear oil pan, right? Since we all know 5.0's have two drain plugs for oil, I just wanted to make sure to lift it at the correct point, which would be the one closest to the transmission, right?

By pushing the steering shaft in, does that mean if I'm looking down at it from the top of the engine, I push the shaft DOWNWARDS and not to try pulling the shaft towards me? I'd like to make sure I'm pushing it the right way because I really don't feel like replacing something I didn't have to.

I'll try what I can tomorrow with the given advice but any more advice regarding how to remove steering shaft would be awesome. I remember when I took off the bolt, I really tried everything I can except for really tugging on it to see if it would budge but it didn't. I'll definitely try out those tips though, thanks guys.

 

[HISSIN50]

I also support the assembly by the bell (squishing oil pan gaskets isnt nice).

The shaft will slide towards the firewall (towards the interior of the car itself). I had to fight my fox's shaft but when doing rack bushings on the 94, I was amazed that the shaft slid right off. I used neverseize on the interference parts upon reassembly. Spraying some PB down the top of the pinch assembly might help. You also might have to slightly (carefully!) spread the pinch a hair. If you hold it spread a little, it should slide right off.

Random ramblings.
Good luck.

 

[Chowder Head]

Is this pinch you're speaking of HISSIN located near the hole where I took off the bolt? I'll play with it tomorrow and hopefully will be able to move it out of the way.

One more somewhat related question. Has anyone done a LT header install and got by WITHOUT buying O2 extension wires? I've read a few people that said they were able to unhook a few of the white plastic thingies that connect the wire looms to holes and had enough room to extend the wires downward enough so the sensors could reach the spot where it screws in at on the header.

Only thing I'm not sure about is if these people had our cars or not. Has anyone done something similar to this where they didn't have to buy O2 wire extensions? If so, could someone explain to me the best way to accomplish this?

Thanks again for all the help everyone, it's appreciated.

 

[HISSIN50]

Is this pinch you're speaking of HISSIN located near the hole where I took off the bolt? I'll play with it tomorrow and hopefully will be able to move it out of the way.

The way the shaft attaches to the rack is with a pinch-bolt. You can see the ears when you remove the bolt (kinda the same idea as how our battery terminals work). The bolt pinches the ears together so sometimes you have to spread the ears manually a hair (the bolt is only held in with 30-40 ft-lbs IIRC, so it's not like those ears should be real squished).

 

[Chowder Head]

So what I have to do is spread it just a bit and it will slide?

Man, I'm having an awfully hard time trying to remove something that should just come right out.

Just so I know exactly what part you're referring to, is this the point where I should spread the pinch? How should I spread it exactly? With a small screwdriver or something?

Sorry for all the questions on something simple, I'm just really confused on what I should be doing.

I snapped a bottom picture of it as well, if that will help any...

Thanks again all.

 

[Stanger007]

You've got it, turn the steering so that you can get a screwdriver in it and then spread it out a tad. Then grab the large area immediately closer to the firewall and push towards the firewall, it'll collapse on itself. The key I think is to turn the wheel so that you get good access and a good grip.

Wes

 

[mootang]

you did take the bolt out already right?