[DeTomaso] Busted motor mount bolt

[Doug Braun]

John,

	I've never seen an aftermarket or cross reference source for the motor
mount donuts so here's a good chance to support our vendors.  They're quite
large, made of what appears to be hard rubber and about 1/2" thick.  Jack's
advice to replace them every ten years should be heeded.

Doug Braun
blue 73L #5505

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com
[mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com]On Behalf Of John Maffeo
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 8:17 PM
To: JDeRyke at aol.com; MikeLDrew at aol.com; DeTomaso at realbig.com;
Dalliance69 at aol.com
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Busted motor mount bolt


Are the rubber washers unique to our cars? I should probably replace
mine....

  thanx,

  John

JDeRyke at aol.com wrote:
  First, WHICH motor mount? The right side assembly easily unbolts and
removes
as an assembly once weight is taken off the powertrain with a floor jack &
2x6
across the pan. But the left side mount must be unbolted from the car and
engine, then split in two by unfastening the long connecting bolt between
the
halves, while the assembly is still captured between the frame, engine and
gearshift support. This allows you to separate the halves and work them
around the
gearshift support. Unless things are rusty, this is really not that
difficult.
Once out, you can try grinding a slot in the end of the bolt in the block &
using an impact driver (most have 1/2" drives so ratchet-wrench extensions
fit
perfectly).

But in most cases you cannot get a clear shot at the broken bolt with a
driver, so my preferred method is to get a good cutting torch, heat up the
visible
end of the broken bolt, and once its red-hot, hit the oxygen lever! The
remains of the bolt will come out as a fountain of molten steel, so wear a
welding
hood & arm protection! There seems to be a sort of insulation-barrier
between a
bolt and the part its broken off inside, so the block threads will be
completely unharmed. I've even done this to broken studs in cast-iron
exhaust
manifolds. Run a tap thru the hole to clean it out and use std gr-5
replacement
bolts.

The reason most Pantera engine mount bolts (on the block side) break is, the
rubber insulator between the motor-mount halves compresses from age & engine
weight, and the inside edge squeezes down more than the outside edge. This
puts
a side-force on the bolts, bending them. Bolts don't like being bent and
will
soon snap. You can overwhelm the problem by replacing them with gr-8 bolts,
or the next size larger gr-5 bolts (after drilling & tapping), but the true
fix
is to either change the rubber washers every decade or so, or at least
loosen
up things and rotate the old rubber 180 degrees so the collapse evens out
side-to-side.

And do NOT use polyurethane washers as a replacement here! Poly is wonderful
stuff but in this position, it will MELT from exhaust heat and you will have
a
memorable time getting the left mount out of the car. It took us several
hours with chisels, hammers, a hacksaw and huge pry-bars to change a
brand-new
poly washer at the track one year, after a single 10-lap event. Good luck- J
DeRyke


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