aligning motor mounts-- do it! (re: crossmember..)

[flaatr@yahoo.com (Euroroc II)]

Potter's suggestion to me on how to align the mounts on an A1...

Loosen the bolts on the side and tranny mount... do not remove them but 
back them out enough so that they can move. Get in the car and on a nice 
flat road do a slalom... left, right, left, right, etc. Pull over and 
tighten the bolts... engine centered

I tried this and it works.
-Raffi


At 01:54 AM 4/20/2003 -0700, T. Reed wrote:
>Okay, so I feel like a bit of a bozo after what I discovered today..
>
>For a long time I've been meaning to align my motor mounts, but it's
>always been one of those "I'll get around to it" jobs. Even when I had my
>engine out to put the 2.0 in, I just bolted the mounts back up where they
>used to be based on the bolt marks in the caked on grease. At the time I
>just didn't want to deal with realigning the exhaust or shift linkage, I
>had too many other little jobs to do just to get the motor done.
>
>So today I decided to give it a shot, just because when I peeked under the
>car my rear mount looked ever-so-slightly strained. I loosened the
>mounting bolts for the front and rear mounts, shook the engine back and
>forth a little, then tightened them down again.
>
>When I went and started the car I couldn't believe it. 80% of my vibration
>was GONE. I have a poly front mount and a vw motorsports rear mount, which
>I'd been told was a pretty shake-y combination.. so I just assumed that it
>would be that way no matter what. I didn't think alignment would make much
>of a difference, let alone a noticable one. Was I ever wrong!!
>
>Anyway, this new development has me thinking that the front and rear
>mounts were carrying at least some of the engine's weight, when they are
>supposed to carry none of it at all (they're only supposed to help
>oppose acceleration-induced rotation of the engine). Now I'm wondering if
>this didn't contribute significantly to my crossmember cracking.. boy do I
>feel stupid!
>
>I've owned this car for too many years and have done too much work on it
>to have never noticed and corrected something like that. The motor mounts
>have been aligned the same way since I bought the car, I've always just
>put them back the way they were since I assumed they were correct. Now I'm
>smacking myself on the forehead.
>
>So my advice for -everyone- is to do what I did! Loosen your front and
>rear mounts and then tighten them again. It only takes a minute, and it
>might not just help vibration, it might help keep your crossmember from
>cracking.
>
>-Toby
>
>
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