Who among you have changed the trans/rear engine mounts? Any tips and tricks?

I changed the oil and lubed the driveshafts today, and while under the truck noticed that the t-case seemed to be resting on the crossmember. Ouch!

It's more difficult to see the rears than the fronts, but there were signs the rears mounts are shot. I changed the fronts 2½ years ago and that was straightforward. In this case, however, it looks like the heat shields may get in the way and restrict access, plus according to the RAVE the crossmember under the t-case needs to come out too. Time to pull out the PB Blaster, I guess. I tried to remove the crossmember a few years ago to re-seal the t-case inspection cover but the bolts wouldn't budge. Also, would it be useful to loosen the front mounts before attacking the rears?

Thanks for any advice you can share.

 

 

Thanks Best. Good to know. Is it really necessary to remove the crossmember?

 

 

I replaced all four mounts at once when I did it. The rear two were much easier to get to and to install from what I remember. The fronts just didn't want to come out for me. I did remove a crossmember... I'm assuming it was the one for the rear mounts. It was super easy, except the last bolt or two didn't want to go back in once the job was done. One of those frustrating things that added an hour to the job.

 

That's okay, I can crawl under mine!

 

I got under the truck last evening and as best I can see the only reason to remove the crossmember when changing the mounts is to make it easier to jack up the t-case, but I can see viable options to do that without removing the crossmember.

The four nuts were immovable last night. I sprayed them liberally with PB Blaster as best I could, top and bottom, and this morning I was able to break three of the four free. I'm going to need a 15mm deep well socket to get to the bottom nut on the driver's side. The good news is that the two upper nuts inside the brackets broke loose.

I ordered the mounts from Lucky8 yesterday around noon. Hopefully they will get here Friday so I can finish the job this weekend.

 

Best4x4, did you need to remove the remove the brackets from the t-case and trans as shown in the RAVE? It's not clear to me why they need to come out, plus getting at some of the bolts looks tricky.

 

Actually bracket wise I’ve done it both ways. On one D2 the mounts basically fell out & on another one it was a real battle so I removed them. The bracket on the passenger side was the one that gave me trouble.

 

Well, that was fun. Seems we all have different experiences. Unlike naivedisco2, in my case the front mounts were relatively easy to change 2½ years ago.

This time it turned out that while the passenger-side mount was toast the driver-side mount was fine. I ordered both and intended to replace both, but for now I replaced the passenger side only. I could not get the driver-side mount out, and I couldn't get enough leverage on the upper bracket bolt toward the front of the truck to get it out. I got the other three broken loose, but since the driver-side mount was intact I just bolted it back down and called it a day.

The passenger-side mount had delaminated, so I was able to take out the pieces relatively easily, but to get the new one in I had to remove the bracket. One trick I discovered was that I was able to access two of the bracket bolts by inserting a 3/8" extension through holes in the corners of the bracket and then attaching the socket by reaching around the bracket and mounting the socket from inside the bracket. That may not be the best description but when faced with the problem I think it will make sense to others.

It was still a three-dimensional puzzle problem to get the new mount, heat shield, bracket, bolts and nuts back into place but I got it done eventually. The trick was to put the new mount in place, and then wiggle the bracket into place from the front of the exhaust pipe, maneuvering the mount to mate up with the bracket along the way.

As I said in the opening post, the passenger-side mount had been toast long enough that a pretty deep groove was worn into the top of the crossmember. I'll try to get a pic of it next time I'm under the truck but with the hurricane on the way that may be a while.