shtbrwn86
SILVER Star
awesome! Thanks for the clarification
Motor mounts
- Thread starter SWUtah
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awesome! Thanks for the clarification
Found out I'm in need of at least one mount. Ordered all 3, will install next week. Thanks to all who added to this thread, makes it seem like not such a big task.
I believe that this one of the most overlooked maintenance pieces, i failed miserably in this department. 5 of my mounts were toast.
2 engine, 1 transmission, what else?
For some odd reason my brain lumped body mounts into the equation.
Well since we're talking about it.. which body mounts did you do, how was the install, and was there a noticeable improvement?
All of the body mounts were replaced, 5 were doneski but the rest were looking to check out soon as well. Squeaking coming the chassis was getting louder and louder, plus vibrations were getting more pronounced inside the cab. I can't comment on the install process since my mechanic accomplished this task while I am traveling abroad for work.
Curious about your description of the squeaking you were hearing. I have a squeak I hear as I am accelerating or braking and it is NOT suspension related, as, I have replaced all the suspension components and bushings, front and rear. New front UCA, LCA, frame bushing, swaybar bushings, rear UCA and LCA, panhard rod, and sway bar bushings. All new front diff mounts and bushings. Truck drives fantastically, but the squeak is killing me !!!
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I hope your squeaking gets cured like mine did
I ordered the motor mounts (trans mount already replaced) and of course the dealer only shipped me one of the two. I went ahead and installed the driver side as it is the worst in terms of access.
The single top nut I removed through the wheel well. DS tire removed, and the plastic "curtain" removed. That gives you really good access. See below.
From the front of the truck you can access the lower front bolt on the mount. The nut is captive on the front side. It needs to be counter-held on the rear. Rear is very easy. You can access through the wheel well or from underneath the truck. Front bolt is tighter access as seen here in these two pictures. Having a long-handled, flex-headed ratchet with at least 80 tooth count is the greatest tool for almost all these fasteners. I used a piece of pipe over the handle of the ratchet to give me even more leverage. Those fasteners were a bit obstinate. Should have sprayed with Kroil or some penetrating oil first, admittedly.
That's the DS side axle tube off the front diff that the ratchet is going over and to the fastener. The handle of the ratchet is pointed almost straight at us.
I can already tell a difference even with just the one motor mount and trans mount replaced. Second motor mount should be here this week. Installation on the passenger side should be even easier once it arrives.
The single top nut I removed through the wheel well. DS tire removed, and the plastic "curtain" removed. That gives you really good access. See below.
From the front of the truck you can access the lower front bolt on the mount. The nut is captive on the front side. It needs to be counter-held on the rear. Rear is very easy. You can access through the wheel well or from underneath the truck. Front bolt is tighter access as seen here in these two pictures. Having a long-handled, flex-headed ratchet with at least 80 tooth count is the greatest tool for almost all these fasteners. I used a piece of pipe over the handle of the ratchet to give me even more leverage. Those fasteners were a bit obstinate. Should have sprayed with Kroil or some penetrating oil first, admittedly.
That's the DS side axle tube off the front diff that the ratchet is going over and to the fastener. The handle of the ratchet is pointed almost straight at us.
I can already tell a difference even with just the one motor mount and trans mount replaced. Second motor mount should be here this week. Installation on the passenger side should be even easier once it arrives.
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shtbrwn86
SILVER Star
Thanks for the write up. Going to help a ton when I do mine (hopefully soon). As a side note do you have any pictures of the trans mount? I did my trans mount about 6 months ago and have been second guessing if installed it facing the correct orientation.
On my new mount I have a green dot on the passenger side of the mount. Just been second guessing myself for a while now.
An often overlooked item for sure. Every 100 with over 180k that i've seen has had at least the driver side mount completely torn. They're designed so well, that even when they fail, you can still operate the vehicle and most probably not even be aware of it.
another tip, hand tighten the bolts when you're done then start the engine. Let it idle for a minute or two and a couple of revs then torque everything down. That way the rubber doesn't have any preload on it.
another tip, hand tighten the bolts when you're done then start the engine. Let it idle for a minute or two and a couple of revs then torque everything down. That way the rubber doesn't have any preload on it.
shtbrwn86
SILVER Star
Damn. Installed it backwards. I get so turned around when I’m under there. The M is facing the front and the P is facing the rear. I’m guessing the P is for passenger side?
Hope it didn’t mess anything up. Probably made the vibrations worse though.
shtbrwn86
SILVER Star
Damn. Installed it backwards. I get so turned around when I’m under there. The M is facing the front and the P is facing the rear. I’m guessing the P is for passenger side?
Hope it didn’t mess anything up. Probably made the vibrations worse though.
Well I went out to the garage and flipped the trans mount into the correct orientation and wow! It made a huge difference! I originally replaced it because it was old and I had a bit of a vibration stopped while in drive. It actually got worse when I replaced the mount which makes sense given that I installed it backwards. I was going to do my motor mounts too but I might be able to put it off for bit now. She rides so smooth!
I’m trying to resolve the vibration/drone issue as well. I will start with the motor and transmission mounts and see what happens.
shtbrwn86
SILVER Star
How many miles on the rig/mounts? The trans mount is super easy to change and made a big difference
280k pretty sure they are original. I have no record of them being replaced. I am having a bad drone in gear
shtbrwn86
SILVER Star
I mean it’s not a guaranteed fix but not a difficult or expensive thing to replace either. It will probably help some! I had the same issue and mine had about 250k on them.
Did this job over the last few days while also replacing a cracked drivers side exhaust manifold. When taking out the driver’s manifold, it helped to fully take out the engine mount so I decided it was a good time to do the mounts as well given the comments in this post.
The rig:
2001 LX470 with 250k miles. Sunbelt car (TX & CA) so not too rusty, but in a dry environment. (Was wondering how dry the rubber was going to be)
Top Bolt:
As others have mentioned this isn’t easy to do. I bought this gear wrench 120 tooth: Amazon product ASIN B00BTEXQP2 and even with this it wasn’t easy. This is far worse for the LX crowd that still has AHC, as it is RIGHT in the way. You can unbolt the one pipe that is in the way and gently bend it to get a little more swing on a flex head ratchet, but still not easy. I would imagine this is much easier for the LC crowd. I see in this thread there is much discussion about this nut and different methods here. Wish there was an easier way.
Side Bolts:
The bolt with the captive nut isn’t easy to see, but what I found worked best for me was a swivel head ratcheting wrench. Easy to sneak back there and you can guess close enough for the torque. I checked my “torque spec” by seeing how tight it was compared to the non captive nut after I had torqued that with a torque wrench.
Engine Jacking:
Just like others have said I had good luck with doing one side at a time. I also used the bellhousing as the jacking point with a 2x4 on the jack. Just loosen the fan shroud, and also snap off the air filter cover, and you should be good. I had just replaced my heater T’s so I wasn’t too worried about them snapping. I didn’t loosen the front transfer case bolts as others have mentioned and I was still able to get enough clearance for both sides.
Old Mounts:
No ripping like others have seen, but they were indeed hard as a rock. I also noticed the new ones were a little tighter going in than the old ones coming out. So maybe the old ones have compressed a little bit? I should have just put them side by side to take a picture but ran out of time to do that.
Might as well:
You are RIGHT next to the upstream O2 sensors, so I changed these as well with Denso units from amazon.
The whole time I was doing this I was thinking to myself, how in the world did they do this 20 years ago before these modern tools like 90/120 tooth ratchets and ratchet wrenches existed?!?!?
New one looks slightly taller than the old one?
Old one doesn't look too bad, but hard as a rock:
The rig:
2001 LX470 with 250k miles. Sunbelt car (TX & CA) so not too rusty, but in a dry environment. (Was wondering how dry the rubber was going to be)
Top Bolt:
As others have mentioned this isn’t easy to do. I bought this gear wrench 120 tooth: Amazon product ASIN B00BTEXQP2 and even with this it wasn’t easy. This is far worse for the LX crowd that still has AHC, as it is RIGHT in the way. You can unbolt the one pipe that is in the way and gently bend it to get a little more swing on a flex head ratchet, but still not easy. I would imagine this is much easier for the LC crowd. I see in this thread there is much discussion about this nut and different methods here. Wish there was an easier way.
Side Bolts:
The bolt with the captive nut isn’t easy to see, but what I found worked best for me was a swivel head ratcheting wrench. Easy to sneak back there and you can guess close enough for the torque. I checked my “torque spec” by seeing how tight it was compared to the non captive nut after I had torqued that with a torque wrench.
Engine Jacking:
Just like others have said I had good luck with doing one side at a time. I also used the bellhousing as the jacking point with a 2x4 on the jack. Just loosen the fan shroud, and also snap off the air filter cover, and you should be good. I had just replaced my heater T’s so I wasn’t too worried about them snapping. I didn’t loosen the front transfer case bolts as others have mentioned and I was still able to get enough clearance for both sides.
Old Mounts:
No ripping like others have seen, but they were indeed hard as a rock. I also noticed the new ones were a little tighter going in than the old ones coming out. So maybe the old ones have compressed a little bit? I should have just put them side by side to take a picture but ran out of time to do that.
Might as well:
You are RIGHT next to the upstream O2 sensors, so I changed these as well with Denso units from amazon.
The whole time I was doing this I was thinking to myself, how in the world did they do this 20 years ago before these modern tools like 90/120 tooth ratchets and ratchet wrenches existed?!?!?
New one looks slightly taller than the old one?
Old one doesn't look too bad, but hard as a rock:
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