Ben Louis
True Classic
I was looking at the 'what did you do today' discussion and it's a great thread. But I think I have a bit too much to post there. Besides this whole trans mount endeavor took me 2 weeks anyways...
Since I first purchased my X one thing that always bugged me was how close the tolerance was between the CV and the rear cross-member. Not knowing any better, and having bigger priorities I didn't fully investigate. Well, now I've checked some of those priorities off the list and it was time to take a look under the car.
This is what I found:
Surprise, a totally destroyed Bush. Now the lack of CV clearance makes sense. Good thing I haven't been driving the car tooooo much. I suspect all the bushes in the car are destroyed, as Ive already had a look around and everything other than what I've already replaced it shot. So, although I have driven the car a bit I didn't notice any specific sound of the CV rubbing because it was lost in veritable forest of suspension, wonks, bumps, and whah whahs. Time to get dirty and pull that suka
There might be a better way to do this but what worked for me was first putting a jack under the trans and lifting until I first saw the motor lift up separate from the whole chassis lifting. This told me the weight of the trans had been taken off the mount. A visual check under the car now showed a small gap. Just do enough jack for a small lift to unload the weight of the powertrain. Then loosen the cross member bolts (4). Loosen only for all these first steps! Then Loosen the (2) vertical bolts which hold the rubber bush to the cross-member. Then finally loosen the (2) bolts and (1) nut which connect the mount to the trans. You want to loosen everything first to make sure these parts are not under any load. Make sure everything is moving freely before going further, otherwise it will be much harder to put back together and may put undue strain on parts. Then remove (2) vertical bush to cross bolts. Now remove (2) bolts and further loosen but leave (1) nut which goes on a stud threaded into the trans. Remove all cross-member bolts. Cross-member should come off. Remove final nut from stud, and trans mount. The stud allows you to rotate the trans mount assembly which helps a lot in getting this stuff apart and back together.
Here's what I found:
Turns out the CV was scrapping. I inspected the CV and it seems to be fine, maybe some minor scuffing but that's it. I'm hoping the cross-member is a softer steel than the CV and took most of the damage. Bush totally shot. It must have been replaced before because there's no integral exhaust hanger and I have a late car. After some research I found that Eurosport seems to have a tougher bush available without the exhaust mount, which I don't need anyways because I have a custom exhaust setup right now. So I ordered it.
Since I first purchased my X one thing that always bugged me was how close the tolerance was between the CV and the rear cross-member. Not knowing any better, and having bigger priorities I didn't fully investigate. Well, now I've checked some of those priorities off the list and it was time to take a look under the car.
This is what I found:
Surprise, a totally destroyed Bush. Now the lack of CV clearance makes sense. Good thing I haven't been driving the car tooooo much. I suspect all the bushes in the car are destroyed, as Ive already had a look around and everything other than what I've already replaced it shot. So, although I have driven the car a bit I didn't notice any specific sound of the CV rubbing because it was lost in veritable forest of suspension, wonks, bumps, and whah whahs. Time to get dirty and pull that suka
There might be a better way to do this but what worked for me was first putting a jack under the trans and lifting until I first saw the motor lift up separate from the whole chassis lifting. This told me the weight of the trans had been taken off the mount. A visual check under the car now showed a small gap. Just do enough jack for a small lift to unload the weight of the powertrain. Then loosen the cross member bolts (4). Loosen only for all these first steps! Then Loosen the (2) vertical bolts which hold the rubber bush to the cross-member. Then finally loosen the (2) bolts and (1) nut which connect the mount to the trans. You want to loosen everything first to make sure these parts are not under any load. Make sure everything is moving freely before going further, otherwise it will be much harder to put back together and may put undue strain on parts. Then remove (2) vertical bush to cross bolts. Now remove (2) bolts and further loosen but leave (1) nut which goes on a stud threaded into the trans. Remove all cross-member bolts. Cross-member should come off. Remove final nut from stud, and trans mount. The stud allows you to rotate the trans mount assembly which helps a lot in getting this stuff apart and back together.
Here's what I found:
Turns out the CV was scrapping. I inspected the CV and it seems to be fine, maybe some minor scuffing but that's it. I'm hoping the cross-member is a softer steel than the CV and took most of the damage. Bush totally shot. It must have been replaced before because there's no integral exhaust hanger and I have a late car. After some research I found that Eurosport seems to have a tougher bush available without the exhaust mount, which I don't need anyways because I have a custom exhaust setup right now. So I ordered it.
Last edited:
but generally the advice is that the gap should be about a #2 pencil.
