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Does anyone know how much play or looseness the engine mount should have in it that is connected to the fire wall and the other end connects to the engine near the throttle body? Mine has alot of side to side movement between the sides that contain the engine end of the mount. :dunno:
Side to side doesn't really matter for that mount. That is actually a brace that keeps the engine from moving front to back. As long as everything is torqued corrected you should be fine. Don't overtighten it thinking that it isn't supposed to move side to side.
I'm trying to isolate the cause of vibration in my steering wheel when I'm idling and in gear (auto). The engine vibration is transferred to my steering wheel and someone thought it might be an engine mount problem. This ome is loose as far as being able to move it side to side easily as well as up and down within the range of the brace bushing diameter.Quote:
Originally Posted by A20A3
replace the front mount in the dogbone (the one you're talking about)... it can induce A LOT if vibration if defective, and can cause less than desirable fore-aft movement when the motor is revved or you shift gears
Thanks. I will try that
I replaced the front insert in the dogbone and it didn't seem to help much. Has anyone else had this problem? I can feel strong vibrations during idle (auto tranny) with the car in drive. What is the cause. Do the A20A3's shake or vibrate when they are idling.
I can't speak for the injected models as I've only had carbs, but in general, excessive vibration is caused by bad mounts. I would still guess that a bad mount is your culprit. One question though... How does your car idle? Does the idle surge at all? A bad/surging/high idle can cause more-then-normal vibrations even if the mounts are good.
I would guess that the lower rear, or bottom center mount is bad. The dogbone is nice, but the rear lower mount is mounted directly to the rear crossmember, which if bad would cause some nasty vibrations.
There's plenty more reasons to replace a bad mount then just a bad vibration. Ask Vinny, or me. Vinny had a bad mount, and it went unattended to and caused him to snap an axle while driving. My bad mounts caused excessive movement in my exhaust system, causing the exhaust to snap while driving. All I'm saying is that it's good your taking concern on just this vibration rather then just ignoring it.
The engine idles smoothly as far as stable rpms go. How difficult are the engine mounts to change?
the side engine mount is easy. The front tranny mount (the one on the radiator side) i believe is fairly easy. The top one is easy. I think the only hard one is the one on the rear sub frame on the bottom. And i don think that would even be to bad if you have a good floor jack. but i've never replaced that one so i dont know for sure.
The a20a3 MT i think idles harder in neutral than the a20a1 engine. But then again my lxi had 231k miles and my a20a1 has 127k. Both were MT. I seem to remember that the 4g AT idled kinda rough if i remember. Then again i never have owned an automatic. so i can't speak too much from experiance.
the front mount berly ever gose upse it lasts forever but the rear mount is where ur problem is the rear mount is hookt up to the suspention frame thats where the power rack mounts to so thats why u get all those steering vibes i fixt one on my friends car and it was a bitch hard as fuck to take off no space to work and i spent half a day puting it on dont bother to much work and u have to know what ur doing the only time id say change it thats if ur droping ur trany out other then that the vibration is actualy kinda nice like a hand masager or u can seat ur gf on ur weeal and rew it a bit lol
it is do'able. A good floor jack and any top support will be a great help. Take out the air box for good access.
I love this little ride. 500 + miles a week who can complain. Take care of her she a lady that knows how to treat you. :kekeke:
