Replacing motor mounts

[ejholmgren]

Cleaned a bunch of gunk out of the engine bay today and noticed that the cable from the battery to the starter was crushed against the k and halfway gone. Wiggled the motor mounts and the pass side moves like a hula dancer on a dashboard. Looks like that side broke and let the pan dig into the cable.

How does one go about removing the old mounts? Is there a nut on the bottom side of the part that's riveted to the k?

 

[Bryan22]

haha little bit more of a pain than just removing a bolt or 2. I just did the driver side on mine. the way I did it, which seemed like the easiest way, was to take the weight off the engine with a bottle jack, remove the top bolt for the mount(flat ratcheting wrench was only thing i could get in there) then the 3 bolts on the motor and the 3 on the frame that held the perches, then roll the motor so you can rock all the peices out, removed the bottom motor mount bolt and intall the new one reverse of removal. took like 2 hrs. sucks too some are way easier and take onlt like 10 minutes.

 

[ejholmgren]

the engine is already out

edit: Just crawled around with a flashlight. Have to unbolt the the part the mount attaches to from the k first and some of the nuts are inside the k? Give me a break, who at ford designs this sh*t. Hit them with some preparatory PB ... now I just have to figure out how to snake my half inch bar in there.

If I put the front of the frame up on jack stands and let the suspension unload, hopefully it will give me a little more room to work with.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I just blew my passenger side mount too, so far my plan is as follows:

-support the frame on jackstands at front bumper
-unbolt drivers side axle pivot bracket (my '89 is just bolted apparently, which is nice)
-place 2x4 from fender to fender, with ratchet strap to front passenger side coil pack bracket
-remove nuts holding lower engine mount bracket (looks like there's 3)
-remove nut from top of engine mount
-lift engine side with ratchet strap
-replace mount and reverse steps

seeing how much of a PIA the drivers side mount looks like, and the fact that that one is under more force than the passenger side mount, I'm going to rig up some kind of limiting strap on both sides, along with replacing the factory hydraulic mounts with the solid rubber replacements Napa has, I hopefully won't have to worry about replacing another, and the next time I have the engine out for changing the clutch or something, I'll definetely pull the drivers side mount... maybe even drill an access hole under the nut on the bottom stud so it's somewhat servicable

 

[Bryan22]

well if the motor is allready out it shouldnt take too long... really it's not that hard just takes a little bit of time and an extra hand. you don't need to back those 2 nuts up either, they did design it pretty well. there's like a lock between the 2 nuts so they wont move, just take the bolts out.

 

[Kenneth S]

On my 88 I just replaced the drivers side motor mount, to get to the bottom nut I jacked the drivers side of the truck up as high as could to get the I beam out of the way, took my 90deg angle drill with a hole say thats about 1/8" bigger than the socket and then positioned the hole saw in the right place under the crossmember then commenced hole sawing, now the bottom nut is a breeze to get to.

 

[ejholmgren]

Hrmnn .. tried a few more times to get at that bugger, but no luck. I think I'm going to have to unbolt the axle pivot on that side and take the pivot bracket out. The frame is on jackstands so the ttb has full droop in the front. Should I put a jack under the beam over on the driver's side to load the suspension a little bit before I take it out?

 

[scotts90ranger]

I still haven't gotten to mine, but unless you have a sway bar hookd up, it shouldn't make much difference, and if you do have a sway bar on, just unbolt one of the links at one end...

 

[ejholmgren]

Got sick of dicking around with large frozen nuts/bolts and drilled through the top of the three studs that hold that side on. Guess I'll throw some grade 8 stuff on there with less thread sticking out the bottom side so I can get a regular socket on there,

 

[Mark_88]

When I took out the 2.9 I had to remove both the mounts for both engines so I could swap in the 2.3 mounts...I didn't think I could get at that nut so, contrary to intelligent thinking, I started cutting with a hacksaw figuring it was only rubber and I'd hit metal soon enough...

I think I cut it at about five different angles before I realized that was going to take way longer than planned...

I finally crawled around underneath with a socket and a few wrenches and managed to get the bugger (can't remember if it was socket or wrench now)...so it is possible...just a PITA and a few other places (PITAFOP)...

I like the idea of cutting the frame to access it though...gives you a clean shot at it...

 

[scotts90ranger]

it might be doable, but would be a pain, and were you working with a 4x2? on my 4x4 I can SEE the nuts, but can't see a straight angle to get at them with anything, and the pivot bracket is just bolted on, so it should be easy enough to get out of the way.

changing this thing is my goal of the day, along with pulling the sway bar, changing the oil, and changing the oil in the diff, and bolting the seats down better and changing the passenger tail light... engine mount first, that dang thing is keeping me from wheeling so it needs to be changed asap

 

[scotts90ranger]

woohoo! Done! no more shudder in low range reverse!!!

got everything but the seat bolts and the diff oil (it's only about a pint low, I'm not going to worry about it, the axle is screwed anyway...)

couple tips on changing the passenger side engine mount on a 4x4:
-if you have to buy a 18mm socket for the project, get a deep one...
-have an air ratchet on hand! saved a lot of time!
-unbolt the drivers side traction beam pivot bracket, you'll need a 21mm socket (again, get a deep one), it's a whole 5 nuts, the one on the front of the engine cross member, give it a good wack or two with a BFH, it's pressed into the bracket, and unless you take the bracket off of the beam the bracket won't want to come off with this stud in (just watch for the hard brake line that's right next to the nut)
-if you have a coil pack on the front passenger side of the engine, it's bracket works just fine to jack up the side of the engine with a cherry picker...
-when you start reassembly, if you do it just right with some prying you can get the lower bracket and engine mount assembly in place without having to take the upper bracket off of the engine
-oh, and before you start, hose everything down in advance with some type of lubricant...