87 300SDL Motor Mounts DIY Project???
 

Greetings All.............

Looking to attack the Motor Mounts.

I am looking for all of those little "Tips and Tricks"

I will have it up on a lift. A friends brother is offering me his repair shop on the off hours to attack such things as Shocks, Mounts, Front Support Rod Bushings(???), Tires, Etc..... There will be three of us working on the car. This is a good thing!!!!

What to remove
What to watch out for
Which side first
Basically - Any and All input from those of you that have been there would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance

Stephen

First off, Have you searched at all on R+R of motor mounts?

If you havent i would suggest that you do..

Most of the posts that I read had to do with "I'm going to do it" or "I just did it"

The search brought up many hits - but the content seemed to be lacking.

Thank You for the reply

Stephen

I've been looking myself and haven't really found a good how-to as yet. Just don't make the mistake I made. I kept putting it off and putting it off until the mounts were finally junk enough to let the motor drop just enough for the power steering pump drive belt to get into the oil cooler line. Can everyone say " What a mess?!?!?!?" :o Now I get to change both.

I cannot give you any tips or tricks because this is one of those jobs that is best done on a proper lift. My dirt driveway is not going to cut it. So, I let the indy do this one. He gets it done in considerably less than one hour. Well worth the $70. for me.

The main thing that you need is a proper jack to go from the floor to the pan underneath the engine. You are going to need some adjustability in this jack because you are going to need to lift the engine a couple of inches after you get the jack in place. This jack cannot be any old POS because the longevity of your fingers will be depending on the safety of this jack.

Starting the cap screws that hold the mounts in place is a bit tricky to do, but it's one of those things that is a piece of cake after you have done it 50 times like the indy has done.

not too hard
 

this is the first procedure i performed 2 years a go when i purchased my sdl (well other than all the filters).
was not too difficult as i can rember. the driver side is a snap and i would study and change out this one first. the passenger side is a bit harder to get at since you cant come at it from above.

this was all done on my gravel driveway ( just use 3/4 inch ply under all jack and stands)

my set up was:

put the front up on jack stands and position the jack under the oil pan.
to protect the oil pad i used a 2X10 the same length as the bottom of the pan and put carpet between the pan and the board.

you will also most importantly have to disconect the throttle rod at the bottom rear of the intake manifold. look undrneath where the thick rod from the firewall is inserted into a holder. remove the clip from the end of the thick rod and force the rod back and out.

the other preperation you will have to do is remove the fan shield/cowel. just pop the clips on top and pull the shield up and let it rest on the fan. you are going to have to push up about 3 4 inches total to remove and insert the fresh mounts.

if i recall you should first remove center screws from each of the mounts. these can be accesed from the bottom through the cross frame. these are the long ones and they have loc-tite on them so they take a bit of elbow grease to remove.

next remove the two bolts from the top that fix the mount to the cross member. this is the hardes part of the passenger side. you will now have to have the engine lifted up the furthest

the tricky part is the reinstallation of the two main bolts that are accessed from below. you have to line up the engine perfectly with the mount so the bolt will not be cross threaded. i had quite a time as i had no help so i would have to use a pry bar and some blocks of wood and shift the engine to where it needed to be.

you need to re-apply loc-tite to those two main bolts.

consider changing your engine mount shocks at this time also.

if you are experiencing bad shaking and the mounts have lived past their prime it may be that the shocks have also.

i bought just one shock. and it turned out that my driver side shock was bad
you can tell that they are bad if you can compress them with little effort.

what i did though was instal the new one on the passenger side and that that good one and put it on the drivers side so when it goes it would be easy to change out. yes that passenger side is a real PITA.

what a diffrence it made she ran smooth at idle from then on.

good luck :D

Thank You All......... for the words of encouragement and support....

A big box of parts is due to arrive on Monday(tomorrow) which will contain Motor Mounts, Trans. Mount, Bilstein Shocks, Control Rod Bushings, and a bunch of little items like fuses, Diesel Purge, Shift Link Bushings, etc.........

I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT ORDERING THE MOTOR SHOCKS........

Part of the time - I will be able to have the car up on a lift with 2 friends helping (and learning). These repairs will be done over a few evenings when the shop is closed. Wish Us Luck....... The new front tires are sitting in the garage waiting for this work to be completed so I can then send it in for a 4 wheel alighnment.

I'll try and remember to bring the Digital Camera with me (It's an age thing)....

More to come........

Stephen

Replace the shocks they make more of a difference in the vibrations you feel then the motor mounts. It is a pretty straight forward job OhioSDL nailed it. However on the passenger side mount I stripped the head out of the bolt :o But luckly the engineers at MB thought of this! The big alumminum motor mount is held in be four bolts, you can take the whole thing out. It is a huge pita but can be done.

Considering that the upper neck of the original radiator is plastic and that with the car up in the air you can't see how much you're tweaking the upper hose, drain some coolant and detach the upper hose.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Thanks for the 'Back-Up' Plan..........

Stephen

motor jack
 

if your friends have a transmission jack that should work for lifting the car while on the lift.

i dont think i detached the upper radiator hose...
but in hind sight it sounds like a good idea.
the last thing i would want to do is snap off anything.