Replacing the Engine Mounts

Replacing the Engine Mounts
Paradise Garage

Related Pages

Reciprocal Links

We recommend Internet Explorer set to 1024x768.

The secret reason that people hate stereotypes is that, frequently, they're right.

Replacing the engine mounts on the Paradise Garage 1970 Dodge Charger was actually a sideshow to the more involved process of replacing its headers. It's one of the things you should always replace while the headers are off anyway, because you can't do it without removing them. If you still have stock manifolds, it may not be necessary to remove those.

Replacing the engine mounts is not difficult, but there are a few tricks involved. It's not quite as straightforward as it looks. We just used good ol' NAPA engine mounts, the same Balkamp number for both sides.

Here's a warning: If your car has headers, you will need to remove the driver-side header to get at the driver-side engine insulator (mount). If it still has stock manifolds, this may not be necessary -- we dunno. To remove the header, see Replacing the Headers.

Frankly, this driver-side motor mount wasn't looking too healthy.

Lift up the car.

Each engine mount has a long bolt running through it. On the passenger-side, the head faces the front of the car. On the driver-side, it's just the opposite -- it faces the rear. Remove these two bolts (note: on header-equipped cars, the driver-side bolt won't come out without moving the header).

Jack up the engine from the oil pan, using a piece of wood on the jack to avoid crushing the pan. Lift it as far as it will go, but keep an eye on the distributor's clearance.

Remove the driver-side engine bracket/insulator assembly. It is held on by three bolts, although this is not immediately obvious. There is one bolt on the rear of the bracket and two on the front. This assembly will just barely fit out the bottom, with a lot of wiggling.

Unbolt the old insulator from the bracket and replace it with the new insulator. The bracket is not a wear item and should not be damaged -- if it is, you'll have to find a new one through a junkyard or a restoration catalog.

Note how it is smashed and torn. And this was the good one!

Slide the new bracket/insulator assembly back into place from underneath. The clearances are going to be even worse, since the new insulator won't yet be crushed by years of abuse.

Remove the passenger-side engine bracket/insulator assembly. This one is easier to lift out from the top. It is held on by one bolt front and two bolts rear.

Replace the insulator as before and reinstall.

Lower the engine.

Try to thread the driver-side long bolt through. Odds are, it won't fit. Have someone lift the engine a fraction of an inch at a time until the bolt threads.

Repeat this procedure for the passenger-side long bolt.

If you had to remove a header, put it back.

Drop the car! That's it!

Ahhh, the clunky sound the Paradise Garage Charger had been making is gone. We knew one mount was lunched, and until now we had a chain holding that side. We didn't realize that both mounts were trashed until we took them off. The car feels much better now! It's amazing what new insulators can do to remove engine harshness. If your engine make some weird clunky noises on hard acceleration, this might be it. If you drive your car hard regularly, you might even want to think about moving up to high-performance units, commonly available.