Took it to the shop and they said that the left axle was bad and it caused the engine to shift to the right causing a motor mount bolt to break. $1,500 to fix!
Since I didn't think 1,500 was reasonable I told him to fix the axle only for $300. When I took it home and looked at it I could see that the engine dropped about 3 inches on the passenger side. Looking through the mount from the fenderwell I could see the bolt was gone and only the broken piece was left in the engine bracket. Damn.
After researching what it would take to do it, I set out to get it done myself.
I put the car on jack stands and got the floor jack under the engine. Removed the power steering pump, disconnected the AC line, loosened the alternator, removed the upper and lower torque arms, jacked the engine up, then down a million times until I realized I couldn't get it up high enough to remove the engine bracket unless I removed the crank pulley, for which I needed an impact wrench and a special Chrysler puller. All of this is necessary because it is an extremely tight fit between the engine and the frame where the mount is located and you need to make room to have any chance of getting the engine bracket off. Fortunately Pep Boys lends tools and had the puller I needed.
Once the pulley was off I was able to raise the engine about 4 inches which gave me just barely enough room to reach behind the now loosened engine bracket to extract the broken bolt.
Then it was just a matter of 'installation is the reverse of the removal' except I had to add the step of installing the new mounting bolt which I got from Chrysler for $4, and I need to recharge the AC. I also put in new torque arms because they were damaged from supporting all the additional engine weight when the bolt broke.
After a few days work, lots of swearing, lots of scrapes and bruises I'm happy and satisfied that I got this approx $1,200 job done for $4 plus $66 for the torque arms. I love a happy ending...
Here's the culprit:
4 comments:
Good story and ending!
Like the rat trap too ... must be a tough neighborhood!
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