Courtshark

Ah, what a feeling... when the Porsche mechanic says he wants to charge me 10 hours for motor mounts, and we do it in 3.5! Mine were so totally pancaked... unbelievable considering it just had it's engine out about 10k miles ago (argg... I was not the owner then).

Both products were purchased from 928 Motorsports. The solid mounts are impressive in design. Installing them was educational. We tried to follow Tony's instructions (v1uhoh) but our job was a little different given that we were using a lift and had the wheels off. I think that made for some slightly different geometry than what Tony did, mainly involving the position of the lower control arm with respect to the cross member.

We were able to remove the left (driver's) side mount without dropping the cross member. The right (passenger) side required dropping the cross member and loosening the lower control arm bolts to get the mount out. We also had to remove the nut holding the mount to the bracket while it was still in the car for the ever-so-slight additional clearance to get around the headers. It would have been wise to do this job before installing the headers as that made for pretty tight quarters in there.

Putting the new ones in was a bit harder. When we dropped the cross member, it went a little too far down with the help of a pry bar, and slid a little backwards. After a few "holy sh*t"s we fixed it and all is well. Scary moment there. Getting the mounts into place wasn't terrible, but it wasn't easy either. We used a vertical spiral jack from below to both raise and tilt the engine (put the stand more toward the side with the mount getting installed). Getting the horizontal cross member bolts back in was the hardest part once we actually got the mounts in place. We also "assembled" the passenger side mount (putting the nut on the top, and putting the seat into position) once it was close to being in position, as again, we needed that little bit of clearance to get it to that point. Note that to move the spiral jack from side to side, we needed to reattach parts of the cross member, lest the engine fall to the ground in front of us!

Once again, can't imagine doing this job on my back in a driveway, but that's just me... plus we had the benefit of power tools and other massive professional grade tools.

Haven't yet driven the car as we finished installing the mounts at about 11:30 PM, and moved onto the solid steering rack bushings. With respect to those bushings: one notable modification to the 928MS instructions: if you have a rebuilt steering rack, there are TWO folded shoulders to contend with that surround the OEM rack bushings. Just chisle them out and slide in the solids; no big deal.

Finished those at about midnight. Exhaustion set in. Will be bleeding the brakes this AM, and then going for an alignment. I'll update this post with the ride difference(s).

ROG100

3.5 Hours is BS IMOO 8>) Call the Record Book people quickly.
Are you sure you set the stop watch correctly.
10 hours is about right give or take an hour and I have done plenty.
Always on a lift with the wheels off.
I can send some cars your way at that price.
Roger
PS doing a MM tomorrow morning and I will time it again for the record

checkmate1996

3.5 hours is fantastic! It took me 1.5 just to jack the car, raise the engine and loosen the engine bolts...LOL I didn't even remove the wheels!

928drvr86.5

Better slow down, someone could get hurt.

Courtshark

I should note that the belly pan was already off and the steering rack had already been dropped in preparation for the bushings install. That certainly does not take 6.5 hours, though. This is no joke... I was watching the clock. Before we began I asked my brother if he really thought we could get this done in under 4 hours (he could only be at his shop for this from 8 - 12 last night) and he said he thought he could do it in 3 or less. And if we did a second set, I bet that would be right.

As my brother said, charging 10 hours for this job is "graaaaavyyyyyy" (said in his best Greaseman voice; hopefully y'all know who the Greaseman is).

Lucky bastage got to drive the car this AM (he's in Gaithersburg and I'm in Baltimore) and he said it's phenomenal. He says it now handles like his old '83 944 (which had no power steering, but handled on rails; incredibly tight feel). I am leaving shortly to part-take of the joy that is new motor mounts and solid steering rack bushings...

928drvr86.5

Ahhhhh ha. The truth leaks out. F-ing around with the rack is the crux part of the job in my opinion.

Courtshark

Why? It's a total of 10 bolts to drop the rack. 4 17 mms and 6 13 mms.

ROG100

What were you smoking - I would like some please 8>)

My first MM took me about 18 hours over 2 days.

ROG100

So the 3.5 hours included replacing the steering rack bushings as well?
I usuall take on average about 1 to 1.5 hours to do that alone as the bushings are a real B to get out even with an air chisel.
This is work on my own cars which I do not get paid for.

BPG_Austin

18 hrs? Wow, good times. And I DON'T have any type of lift. We're talking 100 degrees, one stall garage, jackstands and some beer. Here I was thinking 8-10. Bring it on.

ROG100

Ben,
Don't be concerned its a 3.5 hour job now.
Start early while its still cool and you will be finished in time for breakfast.
Roger

ROG100

Courtshark,
If you did it in 3.5 hours all power to you - just pulling your chain 8>)
Roger

FlyingDog

3.5 hours versus 18 hours makes sense if you consider that:
Mike's brother is a professional mechanic. They did it in his Saab shop.
Roger is an old man with a slushbox fixation.

My motor mount change took even less time, but I cheated and had the motor out already.

Courtshark

I am Mike's brother Eric, and I did most of the work last night installing the motor mounts and steering rack bushings on Mike's 928. He did assist throughout wherever possible, but mostly played a key role in giving me proper lighting in our cave of a shop

Anyway, I got here at 8:05 pm last night and immediately started working on it. I am working with air tools, a lift, and key items like floor screw jacks. By 12:10 am we were leaving here, new mounts installed and new steering rack bushings (4) as well. It was a lot of work but they are in there I assure you. I didn't reinstall the front wheels or the air cleaner housing until this morning. The bellypan is still off.

I don't know if the headers made this harder or easier, as this was my first time doing this job on this kind of car. Tight fit either way for sure.

Again, hard to compare doing this job on your back with hand tools vs. on a lift with air tools.

Great forum by the way.

Eric Heyse

ROG100

Matt,
"Roger is an old man with a slushbox fixation"
I resemble that remark!
Roger