Engine Mount replacement - Page 2

myamoto1 · myamoto1's Garage

So I thought about writing another colorful story about how I laughed, I cried and will have to do it again, in regards to swapping out my tranny mounts. After last night, I'm too tired, so you'll get the Reader's Digest version:

Jacked car up (now I know why I have 2 jacks) and put 'er up on the stands. Threw my extra beefy tool box under one side, just in case and went to work. I also placed the larger jack under the tranny to relieve some tension on the mounts. Well the bolts came out super easy and didn't require any PB Blaster to coax them from their home.

Hmm.. that's odd, I can't seem to get the little bolt that hold the mount to the x-member to line up right. What could be causing that?!?!?! Maybe this?

Obviously, I had to pull the x-member. Luckily I have an Enormous Super Awesome Box (ESAB) that can help out in such matters. Here's my helper (aka "der up fixer"):

And here's his work:

And a quick check to make sure his work was "thorough"

So, anyone have a transmission x-member taking up space in their garage?

The good news is, I found my shifting issues and the better news is, it's dramatically improved. Not only is 2nd gear much easier to engage, but shifting overall is much tighter. Once I get a new x-member, I'll pull this one, but a short shifter and new bushings will finally bring this shifting saga to an end (I hope).

gsmith660 · 07-21-2009, 08:17 AM

Nice bead! I wish I could weld that good you dont need to replace that just check for any other cracks and clean her up and paint that area is probably stronger than original I would keep the replacement crossmember as a spare.

LWJ · 07-21-2009, 09:24 AM

Agreed. Sweet weld. I wouldn't replace it. A nice clean repair is not a liability. So are you saying that the mounts cured the shift issue?

I drove mine in today and noticed that I definitely need to re-adust the linkage. Nice and firm though!
Larry

gsmith660 · 07-21-2009, 09:38 AM

What were your settings on the mig?

myamoto1 · myamoto1's Garage

gsmith - the ESAB makes me look like a super star. My welder has been burried in my garage for so long, I had to look up the settings for wire speed and major/minor heat settings. At least I remembered my gas settings!

myamoto1 · myamoto1's Garage

LJW - I think the x-member repair cured my shifting woes, but I'm sure the new mounts didn't hurt. I always felt that the tranny moved around too much, now I know why.

gsmith - settings were low (major) and 6 (minor) on the heat settings. wire speed was 2 and gas around 35. I'm running some pretty heavy guage wire through there (.045), since most of my previous welding was off-road related (frame, bumper, shock towers, etc).

gsmith660 · 07-21-2009, 09:51 AM

Sweet weld for having not welded for a while.

myamoto1 · myamoto1's Garage

it's been at least 4 or 5 years. I learned from a buddy of mine back East that was a professional welder. His 2 basic rules were, set your gas to 35 (that'll cover 95% of your needs) and make sure is sounds like bacon when you pull the trigger...