Removing engine mounts--help

[89PS911]

Hi All,

I am about to upgrade to Wevo semi-solid mounts with black pillows. My car is a 1989 cabriolet. I have the engine supported at its standard height on a wood block on my 2 ton floor jack.

My difficulty is that I cannot get the main motor mount bolts out. I sprayed them liberally with PB blaster last night and they have been soaking for more than 12 hours. I cannot get them to budge with a standard 19mm socket wrench. Even my Craftsman C3 battery-operated impact wrench will not loosen them.

The mounts in the car look original and there was no evidence on them that any of the bolts had ever been loosened, so I am assuming these are the factory mounts. The car has 71,000 miles on it.

Any ideas?

[K Sykes]

They can be a bear. It took me a couple days of PB Blaster and an air wrench to get them to budge. You have to be careful not to over torque them as you can crack the cross bar. I found it helped to hold the cross bar while hitting the bolt with an impact wrench, which eventually loosened them.

[yelcab1]

Wedge a piece of wood between the cross bar and the body so that it does not move. Use a big ass breaker bar, or an Ingersol Rand impact gun. It will come off.

[CCM911]

Yep. You need a bigger, better gun to get those off. I just did mine in the same manner. If the gun does not work, then you will need a half inch extension, a breaker bar, and a three foot length of pipe(slipped over the handle of the breaker bar) to get enough leverage on the bolts.

[Cherry Bomb]

I got lucky as mine came off with a 1/2" Craftsman breaker bar and no additives.

Keep in mind the Cab engine mount is two piece and will work against you at some point. Eyes and ears will save the breakables.

Good luck.

[Howard M]

Use anti seize on the new installation for the benefit of the next mount replacement in 2037.

[mreid]

It took every foot pound of my 550 ft/lb. impact gun to get mine out of the 84. One was so stuck that it twisted the mounting ear about 40 degrees.

[Guardsred911]

89PS911 - On my 1980 SC, I have a nut at the other end of the bolt which isn't obvious. I am not sure your configuration, but I mention this because I always forget. I had to put a wrench on that to keep it from just spinning...

[Marc Bixen]

I bet your motor has been out before...... Torque should be 65 ft lbs. As Howard M said, reinstall with a liberal amount of anti-seize.

[89PS911]

Hi All,

A 3 ft section of pipe over the end of my regular 1/2" socket wrench handle with an extension running into the 19mm socket head did the trick, and without much effort. Old mounts are out and the Wevo semi-solid mounts are in.

The Wevo instructions say to torque the main M12 bolt to 40 ft lbs and the M8 bolts that hold the engine mount housing to the body to 18 ft lbs. I applied about 42 and 19 respectively, and then re-tightened to those specs to check.

I was skeptical the new mounts would make much of a difference. I was, however, wrong. I just came back from a 1 hour drive and the rear end of my car feels much more solid and direct. No noticeable increase in cabin noise in a Cabriolet. No movement in the rear of the car at all when blipping the throttle while at a standstill. Much better feel when hitting bumps on the road (new shocks went in last winter).

In sum, I am very happy with the change to the Wevo mounts. I will check the torque on all bolts again tomorrow to be sure everything is OK.

After that, I will be replacing the drop links and the two bushings on the rear sway bar. I am not sure they need it, but there is no record of them ever having been changed, they look old, and my car has just headed north of 71,000 miles at just over 24 years old since built in 10/88. I am finding that every time I change a bushing (last year the rear A-arm bushings were replaced due to deformity) the car feels much tighter.

After the rear sway bar, I plan to remove the spring plates and replace the rubber bushings on them with the Elephant Racing rubber replacement bushings. The factory bushings definitely seem out of round--I can see that the gap around the torsion bar cover plate is uneven.

I am sure I will have more questions when I get to the spring plates and will be coming back to this great forum with them.

Thanks again.

[arbita1]

Leverage is always your friend.

[89PS911]

You can say that again. I learned it again today when replacing my drop links and bushings on the rear sway bar...