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1. Grease
the new engine mount bushings.
2. Drain oil and remove oil
filter. While unnecessary to the installation of the engine mounts,
it seemed to me that unless this was done, the next step would be
exceptionally messy
3. Remove oil filter mount
by unscrewing a hex bolt immediately below and outboard to the oil
filter sealing surface. This was messy enough even with the oil
drained and the oil filter removed. Had I been more thoughtful, I
would have put a funnel and a drain plan directly underneath the
parts to capture the predictable ensuing oil spill. Upon inspection
of the three o-ring seals on this part, I noticed that they were
extremely flat and brittle, obviously in dire need of replacement.
I was able to find the two smaller o-rings shown in the picture at
a local parts store easily, but no store in town had the largest
one in stock. I was forced to leave this o-ring in the assembly.
There are no leaks yet, but I will replace it at the next oil
change.
4. Remove the two nuts that fasten the
passenger side engine mount to the frame. One is accessible from
the top and the other from underneath the engine. A set of
extensions that, when connected together, total about two feet is
extremely helpful in removing the bottom nut. I have a set of
wobble extensions that allow the socket axis to be somewhat
misaligned with the driver axis of rotation, without taking up all
of the space of a universal joint.
5. Raise the
engine off of the frame by jacking on the oil pan with a floor jack
cushioned with a block of wood. The passenger side engine mount
should just barely be loose from the frame.
6. Remove the
engine mount pivot bolt and nut holding the engine mount to its
fork and replace the old engine mount with the new mount. The
rubber part of the old mount, as indicated in the picture, was torn
about halfway through, obviously at the end of its useful
life.
7. Assemble the new engine mount to the fork
with the engine mount pivot bolt. Getting the fork and mount holes
to line up required me to lift the engine a little more and yank it
around a bit while pushing on the bolt until it slid
through.
8. Spin the motor mount-to-frame attachment
nuts onto their respective studs a few threads down. Leaving these
nuts loose, while still capturing the engine mount in this way will
ease the alignment of the whole engine assembly with the new mounts
to the frame.
9. Lower the engine back down so that the
jack is no longer supporting any of its
weight.
10. Loosen the hose clamp that holds the
flexible intake air tube to the air box, and move the air tube to
open up a direct access line to the engine mount-to-frame
bolt.
11. Remove the nut and bolt that fasten the
driver side engine mount to the frame. As with the passenger side
mount, one is accessible from the top and the other from underneath
the engine. The wobble extensions are very helpful here, since the
position of the intake manifold makes it very difficult to get
straight at the bolt head.
12. Raise the engine off of
the frame by jacking on the oil pan with a floor jack cushioned
with a block of wood. The driver side engine mount should just
barely be loose from the frame.
13. Remove the engine mount
pivot bolt and nut holding the engine mount to its fork. The engine
mount should now be free.
14. Remove the old engine
mount. As the picture clearly illustrates, the steel sleeve has
completely torn away from the bulk of the rubber isolator. This
mount is obviously way past the end of its useful
life.
15. Position the new engine mount in the
stock location. If it doesn’t seat all the way down to the
frame, modifications to the fork and/or the new engine mount will
be necessary. This problem is noted as a possible issue in the
installation instructions, though I was hoping that this would not
be the case for my vehicle and the installation would go smoothly.
How often does that happen?!
16. Remove the fork by
unscrewing the three bolts that attach it to the engine block.
Here, the short wobble extension was basically essential since the
frame pad for the engine mount severely restricted access to the
most forward bolt head. As is evident in the picture, the
interference between the delrin bushing and the fork results in a
very significant hole misalignment. I felt uncomfortable about
removing this much material from the fork, but the amount of delrin
that had to be trimmed would not allow the bushing to fully seat on
entire circumference of the steel tubing. I compromised by trimming
enough delrin to leave just enough of a lip on the bushing to fully
seat on the steel tubing, and grinding the fork enough to make it
fit. The picture shows how little grinding is actually necessary
when done this way.
17. After reattaching the
fork to the engine block, you’re basically home free.
Position the new engine mount in the stock location, reinstall the
engine mount pivot bolt, spin the engine mount-to-frame attachment
bolts on a few threads, and lower the engine onto the engine
mounts.
18. With everything sitting happy, tighten
the engine mount-to-frame bolts.
19. Reinstall the air
tube.
20. Reinstall the oil filter mount and oil
filter. Remember to fill the engine back up with
oil.
21. Since the engine will sit higher with
these stiffer mounts, it’s a good idea to lower the hood
slowly to make sure nothing is going to
hit. | 
