by: rai
Assassins, sleepers, hit-men, rangers whatever name you want to slap on the enemies in the dark exist within auto mechanics.
My jeep has fooled me twice now with mysterious noises that we’re substantial and unidentifiable.
- In March of 10’, I had a pro-flow cat-back system installed as my exhaust system was making some annoying noises that i couldn’t fix and was rusted and ugly anyway. After they cut off the muffler, they asked “have you had an annoying rattle you couldn’t find?”. I quickly responded with a yes and muffler-dude was shaking the muffler in front of me. It sounded like a shaker you see in highschool bands, you know, that poor kid that stands there for 10 minutes and gets to shake that thing one time and then whacks the triangle for the climatic finish? Yeah, a fin within the muffler was broken and dancing around in there like fat kid that just won a life-time supply of twinkies. So, one rattle down, 342 to go.
- A week ago, May 31st 2010 I was cruising down to see my brother Jordan. Ohh, Jordan by the way really wants to buy a jeep, and will, he’s jeepless at the moment and I ask all to pray for his quick and seamless acquisition of a jeep. Any way, Im off to see Jordan and as I’m be-boppin down the road with my left hand on the steering wheel and my right on the stick, I feel the entire drive train shift two inches to the right. Well......I was precise and colorful with my language never the less as I had no idea what had happened. As I’m cruising down to Jordans place I call him and let him know there’s a problem. We’re quick to take action, here’s my story.
We popped the hood and hot-damn, the passenger side motor mount was snapped and rolled. I guess all 130 ponies rockin’ out of this 4 banger are two much for stamped and bolted steel..........like I said, it’s a guess. =) I’ve got all the parts shops around town on speed dial so I start with Napa. Those astute gentlemen we’re quick to supply the wrong part...then argue with me about it being the wrong part. Well, none of those gangster wanna-be pieces of shit own a YJ, so they don’t know what they’re talking about. Let’s take this from the top:
From 1987-1995 Jeep manufactured the YJ- The jeep with the square headlights. Yes, you’ve seen one. They’re everywhere. These series of jeeps we’re pumped out of the Canadan (not Canadian) factories. from 87’-92’ they came out of Brampton Ontario, 92’-95 out of the Toledo South Assembly plant. From 91’-94’, some engineer decided to lower the frame pylon on the passenger side an inch and require the motor mount to be larger and use a bracket or “cradle” that bolts on to the frame then the motor mount bolts on that. I don’t know why, but that’s what
So, I didn’t break a motor mount, what had been broken for years (rough guess as there was no clean break and it was rusted on the crack line) was the bracket. Yay!! Cool, no one sells brackets. You have to special order those bad boys. So, after napa displayed their..um...lack of knowledge, I resorted to the other options. Autozone, Schucks, O’Rieleys, Checkers, Advanced Auto parts with no avail. It was time for some research. A 600lb tie-down strap held my engine in place for a week. Through research I 
Okay, so installing this new bracket is easy. Give you’re self about three hours. This is nothing more than working with wrenches.
(This will require a floor jack)
1- Unplug your battery.
2- Remove serpentine belt (on the i4 found behind the power steering pump, if you have power steering)
3- Remove alternator
4- Unbolt engine mount
5- Lift engine (the pan will hold if you’re patient) with about 1-2 inches of clearance. Pay attention to the mount on the drivers side to make sure you’re not applying too much lift to 
6- Remove Broken Bracket from engine mount
7- install new bracket to engine mount
8- Re-seat the down facing bolt through the pylon on the frame. (Lower jack for engine) You may need a breaker bar to help align the bolt to the frame as you’re lowering it---very slowly,
9- Tighten the four bolts that have to do with the bracket and mount
- Bottom bolt
- Bolt coming up from the bracket
- Bolt going down from the mount
- Engine mount bolt facing front to back
10- Install alternator
11- Install Serpentine Belt
12- Plug in battery
13- Get back to the trails!
Okay, there’s the quick recap of the bracket installation , it’s pretty easy. I was very fortunate as my friend Jordan’s brother Jason is a cerified GM mechanic and has quite the tool selection. Thanks for Jordan and Jason, especially Jason as he told me to stand there and look pretty.
So, after this little snafu I learned that my bracket had been broken for some time and my engine’s just been jumping around in there making noise. Look closly on at your bracket, even if your mount is intact to make sure it’s not snapped. If you have a lot of engine rattle, this could be the suspect.
Thanks!! See you in the hills!
No comments:
Post a Comment