I thought it’d be a tad easier than it turned out to be, the biggest issue was trying to get a socket that would go over the bolt, onto the nut, on the front mount.
The bolt carries the weight of the engine onto the mounting, and the mount places that weight on the frame, the rubber in the middle stops vibrations from the engine rattling the crap out of the frame, and our old mount had a big rip in it, allowing the engine to bounce around inside the mount.
So, the new mount has reduced that ‘bouncing’ around significantly, however, the last mount wasn’t old at all, wouldn’t be more than 18 months or so – far too soon for the mount to fail.
The report from the mechanics suggested that the others being soft were responsible for it’s premature failure (they could have perhaps suggested replacing the other 3 at the time the front was done before).
Anyway, the new front mount is in, I took it for a test run, the mount remained in place (phew).Watch Full Movie Online Streaming Online and Download
The process of replacing the mount was a matter of jacking up the engine using a trolley jack, with the car sitting on car ramps to allow enough room under it. The jack was to support the weight of the engine so the mount could be removed! My bigger concern was whether the new jack (rated to 2000KG), would hold up to the job, it did well.
Tomorrow, the plan (assuming ‘rain’ actually means ‘very small drizzle’) is to replace the engine, transmission and rear mountings, so that they are all relatively the same age, and shouldn’t experience another failure.
I didn’t need to do all 4 though, because theoretically, if I got 18 months out of the other, and the car is used for another 5 years, I would still be better off just replacing the front. But I’ve become a little more passionate about it (heh, we’d nicknamed it ‘rattles’ beforehand).
The rust issues are all addressed, with exception the bonnet, which I sorted today, but still need to clean up the ‘blobs’ of rust converter that set on top, and then polish it up.
I had an idea of respraying it, but I have some concerns as to the quality of my finish as opposed to a professional finish. I’ve seen amatuer resprays, where the car looks like it has a matte finish, think, VN Commodore, respray, no badging, crappy spray job makes them look stolen.
The power steering and alternator belts are being done since the Engine mount is in the way of them, and so whilst the suitable oppourtunity exists, we’ll have fixed the minor cracking in the belt. The alternator belt is fine, but replacing it has the benefit – I won’t need to do it later.
I’d love to fit the interior out with 2 x 7″ LCD screens on the back, a foldaway screen in the front, a car PC under the front passenger seat – run movies out to the kids at the back, GPS to the front! It could be done, but the expense isn’t justified for what little short driving we do.
The other idea I had was converting it to an electric, but the batteries and work involved again outweighs the benefit because the batteries would be worth more than the car. Conversions roughly cost $10000+. Batteries last about 5 years.
The other item was front ‘fog’ lights, we have the ability at the bumper for them, but I can’t track the lights down easy enough in my searches – the left side found a post in a railway carpark and cracked.
I fixed a screech in the backdoor hinge today too, it’s amazing the results WD40 (well, the super cheap equivalent) can provide!