investinwaffles

- So I noticed my trans mount looked pretty worn when I was installing my SYE a few weeks ago, and ordered a replacement.
- Decided to do the motor mounts as well for good measure, and since money is tight right now I went with the Anchor mounts to hopefully last me a year or so until putting in some Brown Dog or StinkyFab mounts when I have some $$ available.

- Anyways, install went very smoothly - marked all parts so they went back in the proper orientation, torqued everything to spec (except the pass-side upper bolt on the motor mount, couldn't get my torque wrench on it).

- Went to fire up the Jeep and the exhaust was banging against the crossmember. It was already dark so I figured I would mess with it today.
- I honestly can't remember exactly how much room I had before, but the exhaust is now touching the crossmember and the trans mount looks flat instead of it's Y shape.

- I just basically removed and re-torqued the crossmember, and double-checked all my torque specs on the motor mounts and same thing, there is no give in the exhaust and if I try to jack it up, it will end up cracking a weld somewhere.
- The exhaust hanger bushing has maybe 1/8" of space in it, not really enough play to make a huge difference I think.

- I changed the trans mount first, then motor mounts. Both went in without any major issues. The motor mounts look fine, but the trans mount looks flat instead of a Y shape which I thought my old one looked like but can't remember

- I still have the factory one, but it is cracked and one side is pretty spongy so I really don't want to unless this mount is really just 100% pure garbage. The rubber was a bit thinner than the factory mount, but I figured it would at least last me a few months of on-road use only

- Anyone know what the hell is going on here? For whatever reason the simplest tasks have been causing me huge headaches lately
Need some help with this one, don't know where I went wrong. Thought I over-tightened the trans mount bolts but everything is exactly where it should be, and I guess I can put the old mount in (it had not failed or anything) but how could the Anchor mount be this bad out of the box?

investinwaffles

And some pics for yall (was having some trouble uploading them, hopefully they show up)








Old motor mount condition (trans mount looks the same but with deeper cracks)




This is with before the SYE when I still had the transfer case drop installed. You can see how much room I had, but I didn't check before I removed the crossmember because I didn't have any issues with the exhaust after removing the t-case drop spacers

fijicorey25

Are you sure you got the right parts? More specifically, the trans mount could be the wrong part #. A quick search on RockAuto shows that there are different part numbers depending on your year. I have a 00-01 XJ and the part number is different from a 1996 XJ (I chose 96 at random).

However, it looks like manual and auto transmissions use the same mount, so that doesn't appear to matter.

jordan96xj

The problem is the Anchor transmission mount. It is not fit for purpose. You will need to replace it with something better (I ended up going with Mopar OEM, and it wasn't even terribly expensive).

Here is a post I wrote on the subject:

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/jee...anchor-227652/

Martlor13

Yeah man the anchor mount is garbage. I had it for a few days before I replaced it because it caused intense vibrations. Went to Napa and got their special brand, can't think of the name off hand, and the problems went away.

investinwaffles

Uugh, that's what I was afraid of.
I'm going to throw in the stock mount and return this one to RockAuto

I think I'm just going to go with the SFR (StinkyFab) trail proof mount kit (trans and motor mounts), fingers crossed that they are having a memorial day sale this weekend because I have been really spending too much $$ lately.

The mopar mount is only $60 though which is cheaper and did last 260k miles...

THX-1138

Just corrected this same issue this the past weekend. Took out the new Anchor mount put in a new Mopar one ($50) - problems solved. Comparing the two mounts off the Jeep, the Mopar one was noticably higher. Can't recommend Mopar replacement enough.

investinwaffles

Yeah, I just swapped the original mount back in, and despite the cracks and sponginess it 100% fixed the droop issue.
At least the trans mount is a breeze to remove as long as you remembered to antiseize the bolts the last time you removed it. Took me 20 minutes to remove the junk Anchor mount and reinstall the original one.

Going to send an email to Anchor tech support because this is just garbage! I mean, that much droop with a brand new aftermarket mount is completely unacceptable.

Thanks again for the fast responses fellas!! Wish I found your thread sooner Jordan96xj, solid info
Really appreciate it, I did know the mount was sub-par but still bought it anyways. $25 shipped for 2 motor mounts and 1 trans mount made me at least consider the gamble, but hopefully someone else can stumble on this thread and avoid the same mistakes I made. The "buy once, cry once" adage holds true yet again.

I am going to go for the SFR motor mount + trans mount kit, at $150 its a bit more than I wanted to spend but "buy once, cry once" adage holds true.
I did notice that the "stud" is not tack-welded like most other aftermarket motor mounts, nor is it boxed like many others. I am not going to be desert racing or rock bouncing my rig and they are a few bucks cheaper than the other mounts so I can minimize my Ramen consumption.

Here is the SFR trans mount;
http://www.stinkyfab.com/heavy-duty-...-cherokee.html

And motor mounts;
http://www.stinkyfab.com/heavy-duty-...jeep-4-0l.html


They are using a new proprietary bushing that is poly, but supposed to come close to the durometer (squishiness) rating of rubber bushings which is why I want to try them out.

EDIT:
SFR just responded to my inquiry and gave me some more detailed info on why they chose the specific design for their mount. Tested at King of the Hammers so should be good enough for my mild rig

Svvift

wow... glad i found this.
i recently replaced all my mounts with Anchor ones and i too have the exhaust rattle/hitting the cross member. I will definitely be looking into a MOPAR or better mount soon...
i just bought my 96 XJ about 2 months ago so i'm slowly replacing everything that is worn out.

SteveMongr

Comparison pictures of Anchor and Omix-ADA motor mounts. Note the amount of rubber encasing sleeve and the air-gap between rubber and metal. Anchor lasted only six months in XJ.

Svvift

^^damn... well it's a good thing my jeep will only get about 2-3k miles a year hahaha. maybe mine will last a little longer lol

OldTires

This is a picture of my driver side engine mount (Westar) after 2 years. It is leaning out the front a lot compared to the passenger side which looks even. There are no cracks, just leaning and some collapse from the top of the metal brace.

I also did the transmission mount at the same time. Now that I am doing the exhaust manifold, I may replace them all again.

investinwaffles

Just get a set of upgraded mounts and you never have to worry about it again. Plus most are serviceable so you can change the bushings out for cheap in the future.

Much more expensive ($150 vs $25) but not completely unaffordable

TimV

Dang. And here I just purchased the Anchor mounts.... flippen dumb***.

investinwaffles

I just don't get why companies produce parts that need to be thrown straight in the trash, it makes no sense.

Who designs this crap??