Lower engine mount

[Captain Jack]

I took the driveshaft out, walked to the local garage, handed them £10 and they pressed the old bush out and pressed the new one in. I tried doing it in-situ a few years ago and gave up trying to hammer the bush in. Towed it to the local garage and they did it for me properly for £110.

I still say try getting the ball joint ball off.. and maybe replace the ball joint while you're at it!

[Matt]

I botched together a home-made puller when I replaced my coupé's bottom mount - not a process I'd ever want to repeat. So when it came to replacing the missus' mount I did some research on the freezer trick. Worked out that freezing from ambient temperature to -20c would only shrink the diameter by something daft like 0.001mm so didn't bother. Instead I grabbed a cheap wide-opening vice from Machine Mart which made easy work of pressing the new one in (lubed up with fairy liquid)

That's interesting, was it a woodworking vice?

[mjb]

Might have been this one:
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... ce-cvr150b

Well worth the money, been used loads since I bought it

[Captain Jack]

Didn't think there would be much space to get the vice in there.

[gumby6371]

With the car up on ramps and you've cleared the bracket out of the way to get the old mount out there should be plenty of room. The tricky bit would be balancing the vice on something in the right position.

[Matt]

I've just picked up the genuine part and measured it with my calipers, its 2mm smaller than the ebay part and the rubber is a fair bit softer too

I've also got a small woodworking vice for £16 from machine mart, but i already have a record 34p that i could use if i needed to, i'm hoping with the genuine part being 2mm smaller that it will fit in without much hassle

[davew]

2mm difference is a heck of a lot no wonder you couldn't get it to fit.

[Matt]

sorted it out today, the OEM one was tight but i hammered it in with no major problems

much better now, so much so in fact that i could tell that the crankshaft pulley was knackered, so i fitted a new one of them too.

only trouble is now the belt is vibrating like a post i've seen on here before. so im not sure if it the tensioner or another pulley!

[Captain Jack]

Tensioner or a knackered alternator clutch pulley

[Matt]

Cheers!

can the alternator clutch pulleys be replaced or would it mean changing the alternator?

[lozz]

you can just replace the pulley mate,

but for what its worth its Quicker /cheaper just to buy alternator off ebay ,

[Captain Jack]

Yeah, I just changed my alternator... was easier - and cheaper!