Bulletproof 22R-E Motor Mounts
Bulletproof 22RE Motor Mounts
After having a Marlin Crawler low range transfer case installed, I started noticing a lot of movement in my shift levers. After about 6 months, I decided they must be broken, so I ordered some heavy duty polyurethane mounts from NWOR. After pulling my original mounts, I noticed one of the metal cups was pretty badly bent up but the rubber on both were still intact, albeit, cracked and showing their 14 years of use. The poly mounts seemed to stiffen things up somewhat, but after a while I started noticing shifter motion again. Then, I started hearing the front driveshaft rubbing on the t-case crossmember when climbing steep hills. Then, in the middle of a 3-day trip across the famous Dusy-Ershim trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains east of Fresno, CA. they finally let go, first the urethane then finally the integrated retaining hardware. I limped along to camp and luckily had my two original mounts in my spares box. An hour of work had the remnants of the poly mounts out and my old ones in.
When I got home from the trip, I ordered a set of new motor mounts from Toyota and swapped them for my old ones. I noticed no real change in stiffness. After talking with a fellow wheeler (thanks Pat!), he let me in on nifty tip for preserving motor mounts, that is chaining them down. I had heard of chaining broken motor mounts to allow the vehicle to proceed on the trail, but this is kind of like preventative maintenance. By loosely chaining the mounts *before* they break, you can in effect prevent them from ever breaking.
The 22R(E) motor mounts have a design flaw in that they have no retaining mechanism, and when pushed too far, the rubber will separate from the base letting the motor rock to one side. In the 22R this usually means the throttle linkage hits the charcoal recovery canister causing it to jam open. The 22RE has a bit more flopping room, but the fan can hit radiator hoses. etc.
In the above-left picture, you can see the chain wrapped around my driver's side mount. I cut the chain so that it wrapped snugly over the top of the mount and met at the forward bolt holding my front shock mount on the frame, pictured above-right. If you don't have a handy bolt, you could use a self tapping bolt into the frame or drill a through hole and install a bolt through the frame. The chain I used is vinyl coated to eliminate noise. Its got a bit of play in it to allow the motor mounts to operate normally, but once the chain pulls taught, the motion stops dead. Theoretically, you could just chain the driver's side mount, as its the one under tension in forward driving. I chose to chain both sides, as both reversing and the surging of the Marlin crawler gears can get the engine tipping the opposite direction
Cost:
1 4' vinyl coated chain $6 2 7/16"x5 Grade 5 bolts/washers/nuts 2 -------------------------------------------- Total $8
Rating:
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Visitor # 69321 since 28.AUG.2001
[Last updated: 22.March.2021]
[Initial creation: 02.FEB.2000]