hopwood

Good morning everyone,

I need some serious help!

Yesterday Matt Harvey and I tried to change the engine mounts on my shark. The car is a RHD Euro 1986MY 928S2 with automatic transmission. The mounts have never previously been changed.

We put the car up on ramps and secured. The cross member cover was unbolted and removed. Several other bolts were removed and the anti-roll bar was undone to gain access to the engine mounts from underneath. We did not drop the cross member itself.

The cross strut was unbolted and removed from the engine bay.

Next we unbolted the engine mounts from the retaining brackets. then the engine was lifted from the underneath using the jack and a block of wood on the base of the sump from underneath. Previously when Matt had used this technique on Alex P's S2, the engine was simply hoisted a few inches until it could move no further (relative to the car) and the mounts were then easily accessible and removable.

Unfortunately we could not get them free - after a long time carefully loosening them, the mount and bracket on the passenger side were completely free and could be rotated but just would not fit through the gap owing to the presence of a heat shield protecting the mount area from an exhaust manifold pipe.

We attempted to create more space by lifting the engine from above with an engine hoist and then jacking from underneath, but could create no more space to free the old mount.

After several hours we decided to re-assemble the car "as was". The problem was that the engine would not reseat on the passenger side - it remained half an inch or so proud of the mount and therefore we could not screw the old mount back in.

Questions:

- has anyone else managed to change the engine mounts without dropping the cross member?
- is there anything stopping the engine being hoisted - some connector that we could not see?
- has anyone ever been unable to re-seat the engine following lifting it and if so how should we approach this?

Does anyone have any other advice that may help? I know engine mounts are one of the most difficult jobs on the 928 but yesterday really was a frustrating and difficult day!

Cheers

Joel

Mike Frye

Joel,

I don't know about doing it without taking out the cross member. I removed mine to do it. Even with this, I think I ended up moving the heat shield (OK bending it) to get the MM in and out.

There is a great deal of experience on this forum and I think the majority of them would say to remove the cross member, do the MMs and also the pan gasket WYAIT. I did this as my first major job, even before the TB/WP. I researched it thoroughly and don't remember anyone giving detailed instructions that did not include taking down the cross member.

I think there were some that said you could possibly do the pan gasket the way you describe, but I don't remember anyone advocating doing the MMs that way.

It's really time consuming and dirty, but it's not that complicated. Take your time and follow the write-ups you can find in your searches here.

Good luck.

Tampa 928s

http://members.rennlist.com/pirtle/svc_mm.html
Mark

Garth S

I found it relatively easy to elevate the car, and then jack the engine up an inch or so to remove the lower subframe/cross member; however, to do this, the upper cross brace must be reinstalled when the car is full weighted on the ground. If you are not doing the pan gasket, jack under the pan with a large square of timber to spread the load ( say 10x10x2").
Be very careful when jacking the engine .... remove the air cleaner assembly and monitor down in the crevice for clearance ..... to repeat, ~1" is enough - go much further, and other $ problems $ may arise.

As in the pic, I left the heat shields in place. The upper MM studs were torqued to their brackets, and the lowers were less than finger tight: you need to do this to facilitate the reinstall of the subframe ..... it can easily be torqued later.

heinrich

crossmember needs to come off.

SharkSkin

There is a locating pin on the MM that you must have disengaged while rotating it around. You should be able to rotate it back to the correct position so it will engage again. I wouldn't bother unless you're out of time for now and need to get it back on the road until your next opportunity to do the job.

Save yourself a lot of trouble and drop the crossmember. I wouldn't remove the upper cross brace for this job... IIRC there is some warning about having that off when doing certain things, can't recall offhand if those "certain things" include dropping the crossmember but you might want to double-check before you dig in.

ROG100

Cross member must come off.

marton

they also say that if you only lift up one side of the motor then you can change the mount on that side; never tried it myself,

Marton

chaadster

Although I unbolted the crossmember on my '88, I did not fully drop it, but was able to wiggle the old mounts in and the new mounts out with the crossmember more or less in place. I had to tip it and tug it, but it seemed fairly easy.

My car could be a freak, though. This has occurred to me before.

dr bob

I remember doing some manipulation of those heat shields to get them back up between the frame rails when replacing the mounts. I supported the engine from below initially with the jack and a piece of wood similar to what's described. For installation, I put the mounts and upper brackets in place loose, then raised the crossmember with the heat shields screwed on loosely. Once the crossmember was up close to its normal position, the shields were tightened only after the upper motor mount bolts were torqued, the crossmember was in its final place, and before the lower bolts were torqued.

I used a couple dirty words while figuring out how to get the shields guided back up into position during assembly. Doing the job solo, this is a challenge. There was a roller jack under the crossmember which was a lot better than trying to wrestle it into place and guide the heat shields at the same time, using only two hands. When we did Rob Edwards' mounts in his driveway later, four hands made it all a lot easier to get things lined up.

I'd be afraid to make a video of that whole process-- It would scare too many DIY folks from changing those mounts.

ROG100

Chaad,
The key is you unbolted it and let it drop before you could wiggle the MM out.

I have read about jacking the car on one side and taking out the MM. IMOO I do not believe it can be done unless you spend a lot more time doing it than dropping the Cross Member.

docmirror

Yep, remove cross member. Once you've got the new mounts on the engine, the cross member can go back in. If the engine is hung up on one side on something you can't see, use a big-*** crow bar and start prying on the side of the exhaust manifold to giggle things around. I have a 4 footer that I used religiously on every MM job I've done. works wonders.

Doc