Motor Mount- How-to?

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SquareRoot

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I got a hunch I have a bad motor mount in my 85. I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that there is a metal interlocking tab inside the molded rubber piece that makes up the piece that goes inside the "clamshell?"

I'm just going to buy new ones and replace them regardless. My question is, can these be changes out without using an engine hoist? Is the process to just pull the motor mount bolts and lift the block up slightly and pull them out or is a real pain in the a**?

Thanks in advance
 

Scott91370

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It's not a real PITA but it is a slight PITA.

But for the most part yes, unbolt, raise engine, swap and tight them up.
 

SquareRoot

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Thanks, It sounds like the hardest part is reaching the nuts on the bottom side of the mount. I'll estimate the job at one weekend, a 12 pack and about a pint of blood. About like everything else.
 

Squirrely Brother

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I replaced mine with a normal floor jack, a piece of 4x4 and hand tools. Remember to take the 2 bolts out of the transmission mount and it’ll be straight forward. It’s 5 bolts per mount. I replaced the bolts hand tight, so they all lined up properly then did the same for the transmission mount bolts and finally snugged all of them up. It took less than 2 hours accessing everything from underneath with tires on. I thought it was going to be a pain, but it was pretty simple.
 

Grit dog

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Been a while, but I don’t recall it being super difficult on pickups, or cars.
Unless you have some bolts that are rusted in, maybe.
 

AuroraGirl

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It's not a real PITA but it is a slight PITA.

But for the most part yes, unbolt, raise engine, swap and tight them up.
I suggest pressure washing the pad top and bottom and the surrounding frame rail. Something tells me I’m going to not regret having cleaned those spots.
 

Powerhouse Ranch

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For a '77 454, we unbolted the engine mounts from the engine and jacked it up by the crank pulley, just enough to slide out the entire mount and slide in the new ones. easy.
 

SquareRoot

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Update! So I got the driver side out today. Not too bad. The insert literally fell apart in 4 pieces! Went to O'Reilly's and picked up a new set for $25. I later discovered they were the same ones that I removed. No way in hell I'm going thru all this work to put cheap Chinese junk back in so I ordered a set of prothane poly units from Summit.

The passenger side is a bigger PITA because I have to remove the fuel pump to get the damn crossbolt out. It can't go in the other direction because of the headers.

I knew the title of this thread was going to draw ire. Yes it should be stupid simple but it never is. Lol
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Raider L

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@SquareRoot,

I was going to suggest polyurethane but so many on this site a dedicated to keeping their Square stock, I didn't know if you were one of them or not. I'm a hot rodder and unless it's just not practical to leave a thing stock it will be removed and something better is going in it's place. But I like mixing it up, some stock, some race, some upgraded stock. Like my ignition, when I first bought my truck back in '81 it was suggested to me by a auto parts store guy, that "Blue Streak" ignition parts were better than stock. I started using them instead, and they did work better and held up longer.

So I adopted that mindset from then on that if there was something better to replace a stock part with, I was going to replace the stock part every time. Like when I was rebuilding my truck, where ever it was practical to replace a OE bolt or fastener I replaced with stainless steel because of the low to no rust or corrosion to either the fastener or the surrounding area around the screw or bolt. Like the headlight bezels, all those long screws in my truck are stainless screws. Those stock screws right there rust and cause the nut plate to rust and around the nut plate on the radiator support rusts. Since I used stainless screws there is no rust anywhere around the bezels. Just stuff like that trying to get as much time out of my truck as I possibly can.

And so I have upgraded or race parts all over the truck. You can't see them mostly, but I don't ever have to worry a part of my truck is going away or will need to be replaced because I need to do stuff to it due to rust or whatever. That if I was to use a better part I wouldn't need to worry. But because of my desire with keeping it stock, factory, there's it goes falling apart. I know the truck is built with the understanding that it was "designed to fail", but I feel that if you can put that off as long as you can then not doing it is accepting that fact, like "Oh well."
 

SquareRoot

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@Raider L ,

Agree completely. The only thing that's still stock on mine is the frame and body.... literally. But....it's modern and reliable now and still looks cool.
 

AuroraGirl

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I wouldn’t mind poly here
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Raider L

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@AuroraGirl,

OMG! You poor thing. I think a polyurethane mount would get awfully lonely amongst all that rust.

Oh, but wait! There's something shiny and new there. What's that?
 

AuroraGirl

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@AuroraGirl,

OMG! You poor thing. I think a polyurethane mount would get awfully lonely amongst all that rust.

Oh, but wait! There's something shiny and new there. What's that?
stainless band clamp for the rusty worn out exhaust LOL
 

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