Alright guys, I need some help. I have a 1996 Jeep Cherokee that's been my baby now for 10 years. I did some suspension work on it because my oil pan kept smashing into the steering components underneath it, so I thought my suspension was just sagging. Well, after putting in brand new parts and giving it a 3" lift just to make sure, I noticed that my motor mount on the passenger side completely broke off the engine block, which is precisely why the oil pan has been hitting underneath. The mount itself seems to be fine, but the three studs going from the mount into the engine have all snapped. The engine is basically resting on the distributor, and I have no idea how long it's been like that. I've taken it to three different shops, and all three of the guys don't wanna touch it. Two of the bolts are recessed, and one of them is about flush. I don't have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, and I wanna know what you guys think. What's the best way to get these three bolts out? There's hardly any room to work with under there to try and drill it out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Andrew

here you can see the three broken studs

 

When mine broke off, I used a right angle drill attachment and a shortened drill bit to get my starter hole. I have some straight shank easy outs that have a splined collar so it slides up against the block. Mine came right out.

Make sure you drill in the center of the bolt and as straight as possible. Spray some penetrating oil (I use PB Blaster) in there before you begin and allow it to soak a bit. Spray some more when you begin.

 

Unless you can get to them as is, the engine has to come out. Those bolts need drilled.

 

If you have or can borrow a welder, this is the way

 

This was a common issue with the HO engines for a period of time. The mounting bolts bottomed out in the block before they were tight against the bracket. .

 

hI
IF your still having this problem contact tj at brown dog offroad in Arizona for a new bracket and you can leave the broken bolts in

it will save you and your jeep. no mechanic can repair this because all the old guys who could retired.

 

Looks like you need to replace your oil filter adapter o-rings too.

 

I just completed the same repair on my 1995 XJ on June 11th ‘24. It wasn’t nearly as bad as as I expected, but I’m not going to say it was “easy”.

The bolts are not hard, so they drill fairly easy. You will need a 90° drill of some kind. My neighbor had an air drill that was smaller than my 90° drill adaptor, so I used it. I did have to cut off a couple drill bits to get in the limited space. I removed the coolant overflow tank, the AC compressor (NOT the lines), & the motor mount on the frame rail. That gave me good access to the side of the engine. I also took the nuts off the transmission mount at the cross member thinking it might let the engine move more. I’m not sure that’s necessary, but it was easy.

I jacked up the engine using a wood block under the alternator mount bracket, and also used a ratchet strap hooked on the AC compressor mount and on the driver’s side front fender (inside, under the hood area).

The most critical thing you can do is get a good center punch as close to the middle of the broken bolt piece in the block as possible. Clean out the holes with a solvent and compressed air so you can see the piece of the bolt as good as possible.. You’ll need a good light and a mirror with a telescoping handle is also handy to have. A spring-loaded push-punch is about all I could get in there to make the punch.

The top two bolts were fairly easy. I had both of them out in less than 45 min after I started punching, drilling, and extracting. The third one was more difficult to get center punched, and I drilled the first hole off center, slightly into the threads of the hole in the block. I could not turn the extractor because it was digging in to the threads in the block. I was able to get a small hole on the other side of the bolt fragment and use a smaller extractor. The piece came out easily.

If you take your rig to the shop for this repair, I wouldn’t be surprised if the price was over $300, and it might go over $400.

It can be done, or you can go with the Brown Dog mounts that use other holes in the engine block, but they aren’t cheap.