My first engine drop... The madness begins!

[aigel]

Originally posted by ZOANAS
I want to defend the ATV jack, in spite of ditching it halfway through my recent drop. If we had removed the muffler prior to the drop, there would have been ample clearance, as there was when I reinstalled.

Harbor freight didn't take it back, that's why you are defending it, right?

Seriously, if you have to take the muffler off to make it work, it isn't a great setup. Taking the muffler off isn't needed for many repairs where the drivetrain comes out. And if it is needed, it is so much more fun on the engine stand!

I am just still pissed that you cringed when you saw my home made POS dolly.

George

[azasadny]

I can't get either of the 19mm motor mount nuts to come off!!

Does anyone have a secret to loosening the motor mount nuts? I've sprayed penetrating oil, etc on them, but I can't get them to budge.... I can't go any further until I get these suckers off....

[cowtown]

Has the tension been taken off them by jacking up the engine?

[azasadny]

Colin,
No, it hasn't. That must be the answer!

[DanS911]

Geeze the suspense is killing me!!
PS Give your lovely wife a beer to calm her nerves when crawling under the car!

[aigel]

I hope there aren't any nuts on your motor mounts. You meant bolt, right? Do you have an impact? That would help.

George

[azasadny]

Colin,
I just placed the ATV jack under the engine and jacked it up to get the tension off the motor mounts and they still won't budge!

[azasadny]

I guess it's a bolt (I've never done this before), but I don't have impact tools, just combo wrenches, flare nut wrenches, etc...

[Shuie]

lefty->loosey

Mine came off pretty easily with a regular 1/2" drive socket wrench.

[vash]

art, i remembering using a huge ratchet to get zoanas' motormount bolts off. it was approx 18" long. sorry, that i my only experierence with the hardware, but i seem to remember that some cars have a nut on the bottomside? right, no threaded crossbar member, but some nuts on the other side. as a matter of fact, i think zoanas' motor mounts came with the nut in the package. i hope this helps, but again my experience is limited.

cliff

[azasadny]

Not a budge with any of my wrenches. I don't have enough room to get any leverage and the bolts just won't move! I'm afraid I'm at a "go-no go" point...

[vash]

even with an extension to get the ratchet up higher? i mean we laid into it. did you peek underneath? no nut and bolt combo?

[vash]

dont make me come over there!

[jstgermaine]

Dang Art,

I wish I were just a bit closer...I would bring over an impact and compressor....

Can you slide a length of pipe over your ratchet to add leverage?

[qikcpa]

a tire iron is like a 17 or 19 or if you've got one from a different car try it. You could also get an electric impact wrench at lowes/home depot if you dont want to spring for the compressor.

[jstgermaine]

Originally posted by qikcpa
a tire iron is like a 17 or 19 or if you've got one from a different car try it. You could also get an electric impact wrench at lowes/home depot if you dont want to spring for the compressor.

Brilliant!! Yes a four way tire iron will have a 19mm!!

[Fishcop]

Just a thought... Check that some goombah hasn't used nuts as well as a threaded engine mount bar. I've seen this once before, the nut was torqued up against the threaded mounting bar. We had to loosen the nut off before turning the bolt from the top.

[Randy Webb]

Use Kroil or PB Blaster and tap the piece repeatedly with a piece of metal.

tap means tap - not beat

and repeatedly means several dozen times -- over a 24 hr period.

[azasadny]

My neighbor came over and helped me. We got the one bolt out, but the other was impossible and was damaged, so we used a grinder to take it off. I'm going to replace the motor mounts anyway, so now the engine is down about 18", which is what you guys would call a "partial drop", but it's enough for me to reach everything I need to replace (fuel and vacuum lines behind the CIS hardware near the firewall. Thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it!

[azasadny]

Jerry,
Thanks for the very kind offer. I used a length of pipe over a 1/2 inch drive 19mm socket wrench and my neighbor (both of us pulling on it) were able to break one side free but the other side required the dreaded grinder!!