SAAB c900 Front Motor/Engine Mount Replacement, Pt 2

You may recall from Pt 1 of this project that there was quite a lot of grease and general engine droppings on the skid plate.

While I had the plate off the car, I took the opportunity to get that off.

I used PB Blaster degreaser which works quite well, and has a nice citrus aroma to boot.

In the interest of saving the planet, I scraped the gunk into a heavy plastic garbage bag. At least it won't wind up in the groundwater or the sewer.

How about that? Super clean.

The other side, the business side that takes the scrapes, has a bit of rust where it's been scraped over the years. A longer-term project on my list now is to clean the rust off and paint that side with galvanizing compound.

And with the fan out of the way, I was able to clean up the front bulkhead as well.

This might be a little crazy.

I noticed that the rubber hoses that connect to the main intercooler pipe have the SAAB logo and part number as a raised molding.

Nothing like some brand identification with white acrylic paint. I used the white paint first - it looked a bit bright, so I went over it with a light grey. Came out well.

Now we slide the new engine mount under the gearbox bracket and line it up.

Note the center bolt is aligned in the middle hole of the bracket.

Start the center nut onto the mount.

Since the engine is still jacked up at this point, the nut can't be fully tightened.

I also found that the 2 bolts on the sides which hold the top bracket on don't quite line up at this point.

Now we can start to let the engine down with the jack, making sure the 2 bracket holes line up.

With the engine lowered, the center nut can be tightened, and the limiting bracket put in place. Then reinstall and tighten the 2 bolts, with their spacers.

Fit and reattach the intercooler pipe and rubber bellows fittings.

Note that I made sure the newly painted SAAB logos are visible!

Here's the other side in place and the clamps tightened.

I need to work on cleaning up this side of the engine compartment too.

All done!

I also polished the aluminum intercooler pipe as well as the hose clamps.

The new mount makes a huge improvement. There is now very little vibration of the gear lever at idle, and it doesn't 'flex' under acceleration as it did before. And the clutch seems smoother at the engagement point as well.

Now that I've done one of the mounts, I'm feeling bold. I will tackle the other 2 when I can. I know the passenger side is very straighforward, while the left side is notoriously difficult.