I know this will come across as a stupid question, but the situation calls for it.
I can't weld to save my life and I don't have access to a flatbed trailer.
I will be needing to take my car to a shop to have a lower mount bracket fabbed up (about 2 miles down the road) as well as calibrating the speedo beforehand... so overall about a 4 mile drive.
As long as I don't get on the throttle too hard (there's only 1 stop sign between my house and there, 2 if I take backroads), is there any major concern with driving my car w/ the lower dogbone not installed?
i drove for like a week with mine broke before i realized i needed it. of course, it felt really sloppy, but it was in there well enough and it didnt damage anything. you shouldnt have an issue with 4 miles.
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i still say no dont do it. borrow one or something. all that motor weight on the upper and trans mounts does not sound good at all. sounds very dangerous if you ask me.
Id say, go for it....just drive slow
The dogboone does little to hold the engine up. it mostly prevents rotation. so yes you can drive it. The key is not driving slow or fast, but to be easy on the throttle.
think how much it does though. you have an upper motor mount and lower that hold up a motor. you have 2 bushings on the trans. thats IT. nothing else. Build a house with 4 posts. take out one, the stucture loses all its integrity and is subject to fail. So i would not even attempt putting that stress on the top mount alone to justify driving it. i dont care if its 100 yards. i still wouldnt do it.
that analogy was dumb. you are just plain wrong. the dog-bone does not support engine weight
none at all? really, that seems odd because if you take it out why does the motor sag? oh yeah because its just there to prevent twisting. it bears some weight. so when he starts the car, initial startup will cause torque idleing, will cause torque, accellerating will cause torqe. which causes a lot of stress on the rest of the mounts. its just not safe. it bears weight no matter how you look at it.
of course it takes some weight. as vince said if you take it out the motor drops quite a few inches. i would not drive without it because your just taking that chance to tear up teh upper. i know when i drove with a bad bushing on the lower one for a week it tore up my upper one. so i would not drive with out it at all. im sure with the motor saging to one side also that it cant be to good for the cv joint on that side. that may not matter but its possible
Ok... ok... y'all convinced me. I'll rig something up until I can get the actual mount welded together (I have enough scrap steel to bend/bolt something together for temporary usage)
Oh, and as for tearing up the upper mount, that is of little concern. I have a spare mount that's in good shape as far as the rubber goes.
torque rock only occurs on heavy braking (poly trans mounts FTW) and the engine doesn't flinch on startup
if your motor sags without the dogbone then your upper mount is sh$tty
not really they all play a factor in supporting the motor. hence motor mount. if it had nothing to do with supporting the motor and only like the torque issue it would be called something else not a motor mount
if all you needed was an upper mount, that's all our cars would come with. they came with both mounts for a reason: you need both.
i would not suggest driving on it for more than a few miles. even at that, be very gentle on it.
are you people reading......i never said the dogbone wasnt necessary and in my first comment i said that the dogbone does LITTLE to hold up the motor.
they are called motor mounts because it connects the motor to the chassis not because it holds weight. they are not called motor supports
Is it just like the Ecotec dogbone? If so, I have one you can use....
whiteboyz24 wrote:are you people reading......i never said the dogbone wasnt necessary and in my first comment i said that the dogbone does LITTLE to hold up the motor.
they are called motor mounts because it connects the motor to the chassis not because it holds weight. they are not called motor supports
are you kidding? to mount something is to support its weight.
Admiral Jedi wrote:Is it just like the Ecotec dogbone? If so, I have one you can use....
he's not missing the dogbone, the mount it attaches to needs to be remade.
^^ Exactly. the n-body mount sticks out too far to use w/out modifying.
^^not my car
So, the next best thing is this:
Admiral Jedi, thanks for the offer, but car goes in @ 9am today
Take the upper off and leave the lower on. What happens?? hmm the engine drops. It will drop till the lower mount catches it. What does that mean. The lower does nothing to hold the engine up!! The upper hold the engine up and the lower stops the engine from rotating. It IS nessesary to keeping the engine in its place. There is no way the lower mount holds any of the engines weight up.
Quote:
doesnt say how it was caused but this could be the after effect of driving with just an upper
http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=46&i=306962&t=306962
glad you are gonna fab something up tho.
Hmm the upper mount broke and the lower is NOW holding it. But wait look where it is!?! I though the lower held the engine up?? So that goes to show you that the lower doesnt put any upward force on the engine(doesnt hold it up) when the engine is in its place. It is there to resist the moment ("rotation") caused by the engine. With that being said i would still fab up somthing to keep that engine from rotating. My guess the engine would twist the @!#$ out of the upper then the whole engine would prolly fall out. Not good!!
You could take a piece of like 1/4" thick metal and just make a brace going to the mount. Just anything to keep it from rotating.
Bulldog wrote:Take the upper off and leave the lower on. What happens?? hmm the engine drops. It will drop till the lower mount catches it. What does that mean. The lower does nothing to hold the engine up!!
Take the upper out, motor drops, take the lower out, motor drops, take the trans mounts out, motor drops.
Bulldog wrote:Take the upper off and leave the lower on. What happens?? hmm the engine drops. It will drop till the lower mount catches it. What does that mean. The lower does nothing to hold the engine up!! The upper hold the engine up and the lower stops the engine from rotating. It IS nessesary to keeping the engine in its place. There is no way the lower mount holds any of the engines weight up.
holding weight or holding it in place, the lower motor mount
IS NECCESSARY. the question presented is: is it ok to drive on without it.
for a very short distance, yes. other than that, no. there will be damage done to the car if it is driven without the lower motor mount for too long.
thankyoudrivethrough.
its funny cause ive replaced 4 lower mounts and NONE of them have made the motor drop. ive done all 4 without a jack and also ive done 3 from 95-99 and one on an 04 so unless theres something different between 00-02 that i dont know about than the lower mount does NOT bare ANY weight.YES its necassary and is there for a reason.all it does is prevent twisting but it does NOT bare any weight. i do agree that its necassary and not a good idea to drive without it but 4 miles you should be fine.
This is what happens when upper mount bolts break and your motor drops,and I agree that the lower doesn't really bare any weight,if it did, the lower should have kept the motor from crushing my halfshaft and ripping the boot open.
http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=46&i=306962&t=306962
15.2@89mph 2.171 60ft. 9.830 1/8 R.I.P. "LULU"
