8) The offside mount is a bit easier. The bottom bolt is just as simple to remove as the nearside mount. The top of the mount is different. A metal bracket holds the exhaust heatshield in place, and the bolt for the mount passes through this bracket. In this picture, you can see the bracket, the bolt that holds the bracket, and just underneath my mate's fingers is the top bolt for the mount. The tube running diagonally through the frame is the gearbox dipstick tube.



You don't need to remove the bracket to get the mount off, so leave that alone. You will need a flexible fitting for your ratchet, like this:



The cloth is optional!



Loosen both bolts, and jack the engine up again, remove the bolts, and pull the mount out.

Now I found something very curious here. Each mount has a different part number. The two new mounts that I bought, one had splines on the base, the other had a smooth base. Yet as you can see here, both old mounts had splines on the bases. The splines appear to do nothing, the locating elements of the base are the 4 dowel sized indentations on each mount.





Theres a bit of crud on one of them that looks like a pin, its not, its just crud.

I have no idea if theres any difference - I think 99% not. I think the part numbers are kept different for book-keeping purposes. Both mounts were absolutely identical in every respect. There were no issues whatsoever with the new mount with a smooth base. I think its just one of those things. If anybody knows otherwise, please let me know on this thread, or here:

1998 E300 TurboDiesel Engine Mount Failure



And there you have it. Pretty easy job. A couple of times while out driving I thought the engine had stalled. The steering wheel previously vibrated slightly, now its a barely noticeable murmour at idle.

Hopefully now I can get the belt tensioner problem sorted finally!