VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 Engine and transmittion mounts

The end of last month I got the old girl for 2 longer as usual rides .
At the end of the first ride I had problems shifting to second and third gear.
The day after I drove her again and everything seamed to work fine. A week later I drove her to a vintage car market and back a 140 miles round trip and for the first time ( since I own her) we drove nonstop 60 + miles to go there and the same to come back only on the motorway.
She drove fine at average 60 mph Leaving the motorway and getting to town traffic I changed a couple of times from third to second and back with lots of trouble. At the last stoplight ( fortunately) I got her in first gear and then she refused to change to second or third so I drove her all the way to her garage box in low gear I had in mind she had lots of play in the gear change linkages so I turned in the lathe 2 new brass bushings for the 2 rods and an ertalon one for the shaft.
Installing the bushings I noticed that the rubber from the left motor mount ( M shape ) was separated from the metal and the left side of the engine was twisted about an inch higher so I guess that changed the geometry of the rods preventing the gear changes.
I ordered new motor and transmission mounts from the known vendors in the USA so I am waiting for them to come .
My garage box is very narrow so I only have a little space at the drivers side to crawl under the car for changing the mounts making it impossible to work comfortably.
The question is: Does any of you have experience doing the mounts change in a confined area? and what should be the best following order? like say front motor mounts then transmission and then side mounts or the other way round or any other way?

Thank you in advance

Jianis

I would begin with the front mounts first as they determine how the engine sits in the chassis, The side mounts last. They just keep the engine from twisting under a power load.

Hi Jianis,

I can not imagine how dangerous it was to be driving a long distance at 60 miles an hour with bad motor mounts. You may find additional damage as you go through the steps of solving your problem. I am assuming the damage might be in your transmission!!!

Replacing the front motor mounts is not a job for working in a confined space. It might be one that you take to a trusted mechanic and the two of you work on together. I assume you are working on a 1948? It is very mechanically similar to my 41 and uses the same frame. I do not know if front sheetmetal and the grill will need to be removed to make it possible to take out the front motor mounts?

Normally, the mounts are best replaced with the engine/transmission out of the car. Since your motor mounts are bad that also means your transmission mount should also be reconditioned with new rubber if you have not already done this.

If you want to try to do it with the engine/transmission installed you will need to do the following: Unbolt the motor mount from the front cross member. Depending on the clearances you will want to remove the fan blade and possibly the radiator depending on the room available to get to the bolts holding the mounts to the engine block. You also want to remove the two bolts holding the mounts to the cross member. I would get all the bolts removed before lifting the engine.

Next remove the bolts holding the rear motor mounts and all the bolts at the transmission mount.

Disconnect anything that gets in the way of lifting the engine. This COULD be the transmission linkage, gas line, radiator hoses, etc.

Next build something to protect the edges of the oil pan so you can use floor jacks or bottle jacks to lift the engine in the area where the oil pan screws attach the pan to the engine block. Jacking the engine up about 1/2 of an inch should be enough space to remove and install the front motor mounts. You may find that you will need to remove the transmission to rebuild its mount, or lift the engine/transmission even higher than 1/2"?

It has been awhile since I have done what you are attempting so others will have additional comments. Some might even use an engine hoist to raise the engine enough to remove the front mounts. This is probably the safest method.

I will update this post as I have time later in the day.

Best wishes, Mike

Chevgene

Thank you for advising the following order of installing the mounts.

Mike

Whenever I am on the motorway I am traveling 60 + mph The 48 travels fine in these speeds as I have changed to 3.7 gears and I also use 700 X 16 tyres instead of the normal 600 x 16 at 60 mph she just turns under the 2500 rpm.
My trusted car mechanic retired 2 years ago and paying a proper vintage car garage to do the job here in the Netherlands is very expensive .
I had in mind that my transmission mount was bad but the engine mounts seamed to be ok.
I will remove the fan blade and see if I manage to access the top bolts of the frond mounts otherwise I have to remove the radiator too.
Good advise for building a construction to lift the engine as I was planing to use a thick block of multiplex under the oil pan to share the loads.
Thank you so far.

Jianis

On the road again.

Took me sometime but I finally manage to install new engine and transmission mounts.
Had to remove the radiator for getting access to the frond engine mounts.
Lifted the car on stands high enough to be able to work under.
Had to lift the frond of the engine some 1 ½ inch and the transmission 1 inch.
Both passenger side frond and side mounts took great effort to replace the rest was easy.
Today I took the old Girl for a longer ride. Lots on noises changed and some are completely gone. Low and second gear make a little more noise now but top gear got very quiet.

Jianis