OK, well last night I went to install a new trans mount and new motor mounts on my 1994.
Trans mount went perfect, exactly as expected and was done in about 25 minutes.
So I left the T-case drop out to make the motor mounts go in easier, and had both old mounts out and new ones in in another hour or so. Took a break and declared victory because all I had left to do was torque everything down.
While tightening the driver's side mount, I got the nut about halfway tight (probably 1/16" to 1/8" left to go before it would start actually getting tight), and the damn stud in the brand new motor mount starts spinning. Knowing that that mount was now trash, I tried to remove the nut. No luck, the stud is still spinning. I figured getting the old ones out was going to be the hard part, I can't beleive that I couldn't even tighten the new ones wihtout the studs spinning.
I tried every method I could think of to get some pressure on the stud to stop it from turning, jacking the engine back up a bit, prying under the mount with my favorite huge screwdriver nicknamed "big ugly", impacting the nut back off -- nothing.
Now I'm stuck with a motor mount that is only half tight, and no way to tighten it or loosen it. I gave up for the night at that point.
Any ideas? I am thinking that if I jack the engine up then MAYBE I can just barely get a sawzall blade underneath the mount to cut the stud. Short of that, maybe I can get a grinder in from underneath the engine to grind the nut completely off the stud? After that, all I can think of is to take out the crossbolt, and jack the engine up as high as I can and literally attack the whole freaking POS mount with an angle grinder.
Anyone have any other thoughs?
And why the heck did this happen in the first place? I mean the mounts were cheap parts store mounts but this is rediculous. Is there any chance the studs were threaded with metric when the nuts were SAE, or vice versa?
I'm going back to try and attack it tonight, anyone have any good ideas for me or have this happen to them before? I need the XJ up and running ASAP of course....please help.
TIA for any ideas...
Trans mount went perfect, exactly as expected and was done in about 25 minutes.
So I left the T-case drop out to make the motor mounts go in easier, and had both old mounts out and new ones in in another hour or so. Took a break and declared victory because all I had left to do was torque everything down.
While tightening the driver's side mount, I got the nut about halfway tight (probably 1/16" to 1/8" left to go before it would start actually getting tight), and the damn stud in the brand new motor mount starts spinning. Knowing that that mount was now trash, I tried to remove the nut. No luck, the stud is still spinning. I figured getting the old ones out was going to be the hard part, I can't beleive that I couldn't even tighten the new ones wihtout the studs spinning.
I tried every method I could think of to get some pressure on the stud to stop it from turning, jacking the engine back up a bit, prying under the mount with my favorite huge screwdriver nicknamed "big ugly", impacting the nut back off -- nothing.
Now I'm stuck with a motor mount that is only half tight, and no way to tighten it or loosen it. I gave up for the night at that point.
Any ideas? I am thinking that if I jack the engine up then MAYBE I can just barely get a sawzall blade underneath the mount to cut the stud. Short of that, maybe I can get a grinder in from underneath the engine to grind the nut completely off the stud? After that, all I can think of is to take out the crossbolt, and jack the engine up as high as I can and literally attack the whole freaking POS mount with an angle grinder.
Anyone have any other thoughs?
And why the heck did this happen in the first place? I mean the mounts were cheap parts store mounts but this is rediculous. Is there any chance the studs were threaded with metric when the nuts were SAE, or vice versa?
I'm going back to try and attack it tonight, anyone have any good ideas for me or have this happen to them before? I need the XJ up and running ASAP of course....please help.
TIA for any ideas...