Engine mounts

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sprogdriver
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Engine mounts

Post by sprogdriver »

Hi
Just looking for an opinion/advice really. I've just replaced the engine mounts as the old ones looked a bit tired although they hadn't detached from the steel backing. All fairly straightforward but now there is a noise/rumble/vibration in the car at low speeds - up to say 30mph. Could the rubber be too hard or what. Have I overlooked something obvious?
aupickup
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Re: Engine mounts

Post by aupickup »

prob to hard
if the old ones are still attached ie the rubber then refit those
bull mottiff they say has some good mounts
simmitc
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Re: Engine mounts

Post by simmitc »

You have just experienced what a lot of people have complained about. Many of the new mounts are too hard. Send them back and complain, otherwise the suppliers won't get the message. If you search for other threads on this subject you will find suggestions about drilling holes in the mounts. I believe that the ones currently supplied by BM are better, but that is hearsay, not personal experience. Club Spares have some genuine old stock, and can can state that in my experience, these are excellent.
sprogdriver
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Re: Engine mounts

Post by sprogdriver »

Yeah, I wondered about the drilling holes idea. I could try that - nothing to loose. Incidently, I bought the new ones from the Dorset branch mmoc stand at Beaulieu, cos I saw them. Don't know where they got them from - they weren't nos anyway.
MikeNash
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Re: Engine mounts

Post by MikeNash »

I had the same problem of vibration with new engine mounts and also suspected too hard a grade of rubber. Fortunately Father Christmas got me a durometer (ebay, China, about £15 inc p&p) thus[frame]Image[/frame]
These measure rubber hardness by pressing a shaped probe into the material and measuring the depth to which it enters, see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shore_durometer , and using it on my engine and gearbox mounts I find that two of them read 60 and two read 70 on the Shore A scale. A check with Philthehill's original "new old stock" mounts show that they should all be Shore A 60.
So clearly there is important variations in the hardnesses of the rubbers being used. What to do? Well, I've drilled mine thus[frame]Image[/frame]
and will report back on any improvement when I've got it altogether with the engine back in.

Regards to all (and thanks to Phil), MikeN.
Morris Minor, the car of the future. One day they will all look like this!
greendefender123
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Re: Engine mounts

Post by greendefender123 »

Intrested in seeing your results. I will be needing to replace my engine mounts on my restoration. Il be leaving the gearbox ones as they seem ok. Iv fitted new ones to my land rover which have made it vibrate alot with a funny noise at speed. But after 5 years they're cracking and the noise has stopped. Still vibrates a little to much but alot better. Seems another common problem with all classic cars then!
MrIan
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Re: Engine mounts

Post by MrIan »

I had this exact problem with previous owners new engine mounts. I got new mounts from BullMotif and the change in the noise/vibration level was obvious, so much better with the BM mounts.
sprogdriver
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Re: Engine mounts

Post by sprogdriver »

Interesting to see this is still a problem. I'm surprised that the hardness difference isn't greater. I tried the drilling holes idea and while it did improve it still transmitted a lot of vibration/noise. I got fed up and put back the 'original', slightly manky ones. Much quieter but I realise I'm living on borrowed time as they're going to fail at some point.
MikeNash
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Re: Engine mounts

Post by MikeNash »

Just to wrap this up, I've found the drilling of the rubbers completely successful in eliminating the engine vibration. Sorry to have taken so long in replying, MikeN.
Morris Minor, the car of the future. One day they will all look like this!
don58van
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Re: Engine mounts

Post by don58van »

Hi Mike

Thanks for sharing the results of your experiment. It is good that you had success with it.

Do you have any tips on how to do the drilling of the rubber? In the past, I have found rubber a difficult material to drill.

Don
MikeNash
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Re: Engine mounts

Post by MikeNash »

I worried about this too, Don, but I found it straight forward. (I checked with PTH first; I expect he'll be along shortly.) I've a cheap pillar drill and using the slowest speed it went smoothly through just withdrawing the drill frequently to keep it clean. I think that if a mount is held securely, say in a vice, a hand held drill should do it if you take it slowly, i.e. slow in speed and not too much pressure. I did it with the 6mm drill first time, not using smaller drills first.
Regards, MikeN.
PS I should say that the vibration that I had was in the 30-37mph range. If your hardness is different perhaps drilling holes might not be so effective, but I'd be surprised if it didn't improve things.
Morris Minor, the car of the future. One day they will all look like this!
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