Job complete. For me, it was definitely a job I hope never pops up on the to-do list again. The good news is No more clutch chatter/shutter. Take off is butter as smooth.
For anyone contemplating this little job make every effort to get the motor mount area and mounts as clean as possible. The mount bolts are a huge challenge to access. Old dried oil and dirt make a pretty tough job harder. Digging around with a pick or screw driver and soaking with diesel or full strength Purple Power then power washing would be a good approach.
On the actual R&R, the passenger side wasn't too bad. All the bolts require 5/8 th. sockets and wrenches. The 2 bell housing bolts were coarse thread and the vertical bolt through the transmission crossmember is fine thread.
The passenger side was a 30 min. job. The driver side was 3 days from start to finish.
The drivers side, Yep, it's a royal pain. The shop manual says to jack the engine up 3/4" for access and remove the clutch rod, both are necessary, no short cuts allowed. I've changed many motor mounts in many cars and trucks in the past 50 years. The left side mount was by far the toughest ever. Besides lack of access due to the brake master cylinder, the frame and crossmember both limit access. After a few hours of steady work I had the top and bottom bolts out. I was able to remove the top bolt with a short stroke boxed end wrench. The lower bell housing bolt was impossible for me to get a socket and extension on and have room for a 3/8th ratchet. No combination of various sockets and different lengths of extensions or wobble joints would work and a wrench is not an option.
Believe me I tried.
The solution was Buy something that works. In my case that was a set of 3/8ths SAE wobble joint sockets,
this one. It still took more time than I'd ever have imagined to get the pain in the rear bolt out and then longer to get it in back in and tight. But without the wobble socket I couldn't have done it. I gave serious thought to cutting the back out the original mount for access, but that wouldn't help with installing the new one.
The Jim Carter supplied mounts were stamped made in the USA. So unusual these days. They do appear to be a very good reproduction. The only visible difference I spotted was the bolt holes were about .040 larger.
Definitely glad this job is now in the rear view mirror. But also I guess I'd do it again. Nice to take off on a hill with no shutter.
I would like to hear from others about the easy way to do this job! There's gotta be a trick or two I didn't discover.
The Jim Carter mount is on the right. I do believe the left mount is original. The truck had 43k on it when I bought it and the majority of the undercarriage was unmolested.
RonR
