"Tinkerntom" wrote in message
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"Tinkerntom" wrote in message
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"Tinkerntom" wrote in message
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I should also know better than to try responding to a sideways
post, in
the middle of the night, after a long day of working on a
broken
down
car. I broke a motor mount with collateral damage on the way
home
Friday. I had thoughts of even getting to the lake this
weekend,
and
that all changed in a loud bang and then some very nasty
grinding
sounds.

What kind of car did you break a mount in, that caused other
problems? I had
not broken one in many years after having an early 70s Chrysler
that
ate
them for breakfast. Until recently, that is, when my wife's
Bonneville
(since traded for a Jeep) broke the front one. It had the same
problem as
that early Chrysler. There was no limiter to keep the rubber from
over-extending. On many others in between these 2 cars I noticed
that
they
had a lip that would prevent over extension and then if the
rubber
did break
it would prevent collateral damage by keeping the engine from
moving
beyond
the limits of other components. I think the engineers either
forget
the
lessons learned or they are so hard pressed to save money, space
and
weight
that they make sacrifices. Rubber holding hundreds of ft/lbs of
torque in
place is a poor place to save a few ounces or cents. IMO

Ken

Dodge Grand Caravan, 3.3 L engine, Left side mount. The engine
dropped
and moved to the right about 1.5 inches. the left side constant
velocity drive shaft pulled apart and self distructed.

I had a spare shaft that I put on, before I figured out about the
motor
mount, and it lasted about 20 ft before coming apart as well.
That's
when I began to figure there was something else wrong than a bad CV
joint. I am a fast learner!

When I got it all jacked up you could see the rear mount all
dropped
down and pushed to the right. I figure the pop I heard at first,
was
the mount breaking, then the grinding was the knuckle joint coming
apart. I hope I did not damage the tranny? TnT

Yeah, if you pulled one apart you were driving the opposite side
shaft into
the tranny. Hopefully it has a bearing that can take the side load
without
harm. You should know in the next 3k miles or so. Wish you luck. If
they had
limiters built into the mount you would have just needed the mount.

Ken

Limiters, what a novel idea!!!! Well I got it all put back together,
replacing the left rail mount, left CV-Shaft, and everything ran fine
for about 10 miles, and then I heard the motor shift right, blew left
CV shaft again, and this time the power steering pulley hit the right
rail, blew apart the pulley and sepentine bolt.

Started talking to different mechanics, and come to find out this is a
fairly common problem. Talked to Dodge Dealership mechanic, who said,
"Yeah those AWD Caravan have this happen commonly, but there are not
enough of them for Dodge to re-engineer the mount."

So now I am replacing the pulley, belt, 4th Shaft, and re-engineering
the motor mount to include a limiter to stop the engine from twisting
to the right side.

Do you think I could get a job with Dodge? At least that way I would
get paid for doing all this work. Dodge says they get $800.00 for
replacing motor mounts + parts, which usually requires the CV shaft
replacement, and they recommend doing both sides, which adds another
$600.00 to the total. TnT

It is certainly a shame that they have learned nothing in 30 some years. In
my 72 Dodge I made the limiter out of tow chain. One end under the engine
bolt and the other end under the frame bolt. Just enough slack to keep
vibration from being transferred to the frame. Now you can get webbing from
most speed shops (at least ones that serve the real racing crowd) and use
that in the same way. It is high tech fabric that resists heat and wear.
Racers use the stuff to hold their engines in and I believe the off road
racers also control how far the axle can move downward.

Ken