Can I have some support here please!

When I booked BART in to have his wheel alignment check I also asked BlackBoots to take a look at the custom CSC exhaust as one of the joints is blowing, as it is a custom design they didn't have a U bolt clamp of the correct size to hand so ordered one in for when I re-visit to finalise the alignment.

With that in process I turned my attention to replacing the failed bottom engine mount.  The engine mount was an aftermarket one sold through Eurosport UK a few years back.  It differs to the standard one by having an extended exhaust bracket built into the design, unfortunately they can no longer be obtained.

Having already sourced a standard replacement mount from DG_Rally on eBay without the extended support I needed to place another order with Claire  @ Eurosport UK for a separate exhaust extension arm!

Replacement is easy enough but needs some care.  Jack the rear of the car up or put the rear wheels on blocks/ramps.  Place a jack under the gearbox and raise it up to take the weight of the engine off the lower mount.  Undue the exhaust bolts and the three bolts securing the mount to the gearbox and then undue the two bolts holding the mount to the crossmember.  This is the old failed mount:

Old and new, new with additional support bracket:

Assembly is the reverse of disassembly...well not quite as I now found move evidence of poor workmanship from a previous life.  The mount needs to be aligned with the holes in the gearbox AND it also needs to be parallel with the gearbox.  Achieving this is done by loosening off the crossmember bolts so there is enough left to right twist to parallel the mount and not preload the rubber or stress the mounting bolts.

What seems to have happened previously is the mount had been bolted up to the gearbox at an angle stressing the rubber and putting strain on the three mounting bolts as they pulled everything into alignment.  The result is premature wear of the mount and partial thread stripping of the mounting holes!  Unbelievable!  With luck though there was just enough thread left for me to use a slightly longer bolt in one hole to secure the mount.  One other thread had slightly stripped but was still ok thankfully.  I placed some copper slip grease on the bolt threads and finger tightened them first before finally tightening them up.

With the mount installed the crossmember bolts could then be torqued up, thankfully this resulted in no more clonks and donks emanating from the rear of the car over bumps!