danglerb

How about a nut cracker? I seem to remember some tool that screws a chisel point into a stuck nut to split it, or is this something entirely different.

ROG100

Paul,
Be a man and take out the crossmember
We Brits need to stand up and be recognised
Roger

SharkSkin

Do you have a torch? try heating the captive nut. Get it nice and toasty, then when it's cool enough that you won't start a fire, spray it with penetrant. Once it's all apart, you can clean it up and give it a coat of spray paint so it won't rust.

UKKid35

Another six hours and I'm managed to... remove two bolts.

Admittedly that did include two trips on foot in the pouring rain to my (not so) local DIY store. First time to purchase a set of pretty pink grinding wheels, and the second time to buy a Bosch power drill after my 30 year old Black & Decker got rather hot and started smoking.

Eventually the captive bolts holding the RHS heat shield were no more, and I don't think I have to worry about iron deficiency in my diet for a while. But after removing the heat shield I think spent the next two hours discovering that the RHS engine mount is staying put. The problem is with the 'catch' on the upper bracket hitting the cross member, meaning you can't remove the mount/bracket assembly in one. Instead you have to separate them and wriggle the mount out from inside the bracket. Unfortunately to do this you absolutely have to remove the top EM nut.

How do you remove this nut? I managed to get my torque wrench on it across the top of the aircon, but there's not enough movement to do anything. A shorter ratchet fits and has more degrees of movement, but there's not enough leverage. To undo the other EM nut required the torque wrench and both hands, so how can I possibly undo this nut?

I don't want to have to lower the cross member after getting this far, but I can't see any other option.

UKKid35

Bunked off work yesterday to try to finish this most frustrating, filthy and fantastically awkward job.

I decided that there was no way I was going to be able to loosen the top engine mount nut in situ, and I was right, even when I got it out it took a three foot breaker bar with the EM jammed under the car tyre, as that was the only way I had of holding it.

To remove it I loosed all the cross member bolts, and lowered the RHS by about an inch, this gave enough clearance to get the old EM out, and the new larger EM in. My old mounts were not as badly collapsed as Joel's and I put this down to the fact that I had installed the Jager neoprene cross member pad some years ago.

Re-fitting the cross member wasn't as bad as I'd feared. The bitch bolt on the LHS went straight in, and the one on the RHS only required that I tapered the bolt itself, as there's at least half and inch of exposed thread when installed with it's nut, it then went in easily. Tightening the steering rack bolts was as awkward as loosening them, but not impossible.

The big issue that I have now though is the wiring loom and coolant tank. I can't bolt the tank back in place because the wiring loom hits the underside outlet. There is a cable clamp and bracket on the back of the cylinder head, I need to change the orientation of this clamp so it holds the loom much lower, but actually doing this when the loom itself is rock solid is very difficult indeed.

I filled the new oil filter and fitted it before starting the engine, I had nightmares about forgetting this rather critical step. I've driven the car with the coolant tank loose, and the only concern I had initially was a clicking sound at engine speed. I'm assuming this was a tappet that had drained because the oil filter had been removed, even though this doesn't entirely make sense.

The degree of engine rock when blipping was not as dramatic as I expected, but the change in refinement when driving is quite noticeable. Every aspect of driving seems smoother: accelerating, changing gear, and the ride over bumps is much less jarring.

All in all, a very worthwhile fix, but quite arduous unless everything goes perfectly to plan.

SharkSkin

Wow Paul, what an ordeal! Glad you got it done, but I have to ask, next time, would you do it this way or drop the crossmember?

Kind of like the time Bill, Matt, Steve & I swapped a TT on an S4 without dropping the tranny or cutting the bellhousing. Yes, we proved it's possible but I had the distinct impression that next time, Bill will drop the tranny...

MarkRobinson

I have an extra pair of Anchor Motor mounts if someone wants to buy them from me. I need to check my price before I offer them, but I think it was about $45 for the pair.

Mark

UKKid35

Next Time? Are you joking? I'm not doing this again without a lift, a directors chair, and several assistants doing all the wrenching.

SharkSkin

But you're an expert now... wrench it and they will come...

Kidding aside, the question I ought to have asked is, would you recommend this method to someone who is considering changing their MMs but doesn't need a pan gasket? I did this job myself back in September, and it seems to me I ought to be glad I just dropped the crossmember, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

UKKid35

If you can undo the top nut on the RHS mount in situ, then it surely has to be easier than dropping the cross member, as there's simply less to do. The heatshield was a problem for me too, but perhaps I was just unlucky - Joel and Matt didn't have any real issues there.

However all our experiance has been on RHD cars, there may be significant differences with LHD that I don't know about.

The problem with dropping the cross member and doing the pan gasket, is that you might as well start changing bearings too, and you're now getting in to serious WYAIT territory.

matt928nut

LOL ! I doubt there will be "Next time" ... Original mounts lasted 20 Years and since these ALTERNATIVE MMs are meant to last longer, it's best not to hold your breath ... well that's what I'm hoping for my SHARK, anyway.
Matt... RHD '87 S4 Manual/LSD with NEW MMs & sump gasket, almost in.

matt928nut

Hi Dave ... if I may add my 2 cents worth... if U were doing just the MMs, than leaving the X member in place is the way to go ... if however U're doing both, the MMs and the SG, like I am at the moment, than dropping the X member makes the whole job easier, however I have done two sump gasket swaps without dropping the X member, but we didn't do the MMs as they were OK on both occasions.
Matt... RHD '87 S4 Manual/LSD ... the BIG X member drop coming this Sunday

marton

Helped a friend today who wanted to change MMs without dropping teh X member.

Both of us very new at this; it even took us about 10 minutes to agree which heat shields had to be removed.

We started at the crack of dawn (about 11am) and were making good
technical progress until 13:30.
We had the car jacked up and on ramps, both heat shields removed, all
17mm nuts and bolts on steering rack removed (not yet the 13mm), and
the air filter & pipes removed (this was in our instruction list but
it did not seem necessary).

By then we had racked up so many complaints from his neighbours
(bl*#@dy Swiss!!) who share the very large underground garage; who were insisting we finish the work today that we submitted to the pressure & put it all back together before we got stuck on something. We put plenty of grease on the replaced nuts and bolts in case we try again to do this work. It was much quicker to put it all back together than the dismantling; learning by doing.
Swiss are not really into auto DIY and object to anyone who tries it. Strangely they are into guns; more guns per head than in the USA and also relatively more gun related deaths.

Pity because the job was all going quite smoothly. I think that within the next 30 minutes we would have dropped the steering rack and the anti-roll bar. No idea how long it would have taken us to to undo the MM bolts and jack up the motor.

Garth S

Sounds as if you'll have to work the night shift to pull this one off: strange that they don't like cars - you are in the Germanic part of Switzerland, after all.
How about the strategy of telling them to stuff it - sharing a garage means sharing! ... oh - they really like guns, eh? That redefines the 'good neighbor policy'.

BTW, on a side note for you Zurich dwellers, it has been many years since I strolled the Bahnhoffstrasse - but the memory lingers of attempting to buy a Porsche logo keychain from one of the typical shoppes: informed of the price at ~10K Swiss francs , a graceful retreat was in order ..... for that would have bought a good 944S instead of a keychain .

marton

I think they like cars; it is much easier to import foreign cars into Switzerland then either into the EU or the USA. You pay about 50 bucks for an inspection, fix anything they say needs fixing and that is it.
I read once there are more US cars here than any other European country, there are lots of people offering Hummers, Vipers, GT500s, corvettes, etc.

Claimed to be the most expensive street for shopping in Europe...

That is a good idea.

Marton