RE: engine mounts

["Brian Shorey" <bshorey@domain.elided>]

> I'll try to keep this short. How do you know when your mounts are bad?
I was
> replacing a belt, and had to lift the engine to get it over the
waterpump
> pulleys. (that was a great suggestion from some list folks!) Folks
said the
> sag's due to sagging mounts. I looked around the car and found a mount
> halfway down the enging on the left inner wheel well, and I'm guessing
> there's one on the other side. The one I looked at seems pretty normal
> looking. Do I know it's sagging because the the engine is too low in
the
> front? 

If you have to jack up the motor to get a fan belt over a pulley, then
one or both of your motor mounts is bad.

How to tell which one?  On inspection, the rubber part of the mount will
look a little bulbous.  If you have any doubts, I'd just go ahead and
replace both of them.

Use the same engine jacking routine you used to change the belt, jack up
the motor a little bit, then change one mount at a time (if you r&r them
both together it can be challenging to get them all to line up).

HINT:  The bottom hardware for each mount, where it connects to the
cross member, is really a stud (the top one is a bolt that threads into
the cross member).  That means you only have to remove the top one, and
loosen the bottom one, to get the mount out - the mount is slotted on
the bottom.

> Extra credit second question :): my brother, who is the one who got me
into
> spiders, just had a baby. He's now worried about a rollover and wants
a bar.
> I know what this will do to the lines of the car, but he is not to be
> dissuaded. I want to get him one for his birthday, but it's not
exactly a
> common item!

There's a street height bar and a race height bar.  The race height bar
is 3" - 4" taller than the street height bar, but the top won't close
over it.  The street height bar fits comfortably under the top, but may
not extend over the top of your head.  Which means it doesn't offer
complete 'protection' in a rollover (although it should protect your
nephew/niece).

HTH,

bs
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