Write-Up: Hockey Puck & Casting Front/Side Motor Mounts

Would that be easier to do than slipping on a couple of washers and spacers?

For shipping to canada? for sure.

I might be able to rig up an insert and locking arrangement for anyone who wants, who hasn't done this mod yet. Or you can go washers and spacers arrangement if you want. I can eat pretty much any production and material cost for any Riv person who wants something made. Shipping and its yours. This goes for anything beyond the hockey puck mod too. Keep it in mind everyone

AA, I'll get back to you asap about the pieces because when you mentioned cutting them to size for me, I remembered something I noticed when I installed my front mount. From the pictures, It looks like your pipe is pretty much dead center in your mount. Mine needed to be offset some because my trans bracket wasn't sitting even around the subframe bracket from side to side. If you compare my pictures to yours, you can kind of see the difference. I wonder why that would be?

I centered mine, but I noticed yours is shifted slightly higher. If you look at a new OEM mount, I think the axis of the bolt is slightly shifted upward, but my old OEM mount had the bolt axis nearer to center. I believe is because under the weight of the engine, the soft OEM mount sags somewhat, resulting in the axis moving downward, and moving close to center.

My thinking was, the pucks are very stiff and don't sag much if any, so I drilled them on center. I had to put quite a bit of upward leverage on the engine to get the bolt to align with my centered sleeve. If the sleeve were any higher in the mount, I don't know if I could have gotten the bolt to slide in.

I was talking about the how far to one side the pipe is pushed through the pucks. Yours appears to have the same length of pipe exposed on both sides. Mine has a good bit more on one side than the other with the pucks centered obviously. It's almost like either the position of the trans is moved over (pretty much impossible) or the through bolt hole on the cradle is moved over (doubt it but who knows)

I made my hole a little higher than center because when I put it in I wanted to negate the affect of the cradle spacers to basically have the motor/trans sitting at normal height. Once, I have it all apart again, I'm going to pull the pucks back out of the front bracket and flip em over so it's sitting farther down. I'm doing it that way because I don't want to have everything being pulled downward because of the front and rear HP mounts that attach to the cradle while the side mounts that attach to the unibody are still trying to hold the motor/trans up to normal height.

BTW as soon as I can find an adapter to transfer the pics, I have the rear HP mount done to post up.

FWIW my replacement OEM filled mount has also shifted to the side. appears to me either the trans/engine has twisted clockwise slightly or the cradle has moved i would really like to know which but it will have to wait until after i get the trans rebuilt.

I am dong this mod shortly. first impressions:

I would not do this on a Riv or other vehicle that does not originally have a bonneville/PA style mount.

On my PAU the front mount does both thru the cradle HOWEVER it is reinforced with a welded in spacer so the bolt does not tear through the cradle like as posted earlier in the thread. If you do this mod on a vehicle not originally equipped with the bonne/pa style mount make sure you place a spacer similar to the PA in the cradle notch you cut for the bolt. Also use a large washer to help distribute those forces across the spacer.

That having been said a roughly 8" bolt 1/2" in diameter is about perfect in order to mount through the factory location on a PA. This is with 3.5 pucks under (addl spacers may still required) and 1/2 puck over the bracket to somewhat dampen the upward motion under load. All hardware is grade 8 and using a lock washer and lock nut to secure the mount in place.

I'm still i need of 3 more pucks to finish the mount. walmart does not sell them here, no sports stores carry them, and shipping for online pucks is INSANE! - i have a few calls out for favors at the moment. if all else fails could someone shove a handful in a USPS flat rate priority box with some light padding and send it my way?

Puck mount complete.

Minimal vibration increase.

this can be done in 1hr with very basic tools.

I made a couple alterations to the general concept.

1. I did NOT use metal spacers on the bottom and top of the puck stack. metal on metal is bad. the puck is in direct contact with the cradle and the bracket. my metal spacers are between pucks.

2. 3.5 pucks worked PERFECT.

3. the other 1/2 puck went on top of the bracket to allow some dampening in the upward direction. only 1/2 puck is needed.

On a Park Ave Ultra with the Bonne style mount a 8" long 1/2" bolt worked perfect with my arrangement of 1/2 puck on top, 3.5 pucks below, and small 1/2" x 2 washers in between the lower pucks. no spacers on the very bottom or top of the stack. keep in mind my vehicle came with this style of mount stock so the cradle was pre-cut and reinforced with a welded in spacer. i suggest you do the same with your non-bonne equipped vehicle or bolt all the way through the cradle.

fubar569 wrote:

Puck mount complete.

Minimal vibration increase.

this can be done in 1hr with very basic tools.

I made a couple alterations to the general concept.

1. I did NOT use metal spacers on the bottom and top of the puck stack. metal on metal is bad. the puck is in direct contact with the cradle and the bracket. my metal spacers are between pucks.

2. 3.5 pucks worked PERFECT.

3. the other 1/2 puck went on top of the bracket to allow some dampening in the upward direction. only 1/2 puck is needed.

On a Park Ave Ultra with the Bonne style mount a 8" long 1/2" bolt worked perfect with my arrangement of 1/2 puck on top, 3.5 pucks below, and small 1/2" x 2 washers in between the lower pucks. no spacers on the very bottom or top of the stack. keep in mind my vehicle came with this style of mount stock so the cradle was pre-cut and reinforced with a welded in spacer. i suggest you do the same with your non-bonne equipped vehicle or bolt all the way through the cradle.

That's pretty much exactly what I did when I had the bonne-puck mount. It worked awesome for ~1year and ruined the cradle. The cradle simply doesn't have the support in that area for that shock. The H-body cradles that the mount is for has a thick sleeve welded through the cradle, top-to-bottom for it. The riv cradle has the same thing going front to back for our mount. Also keep a watch on the rear trans mount because I can tell you from first hand experience that with a stiff mount at the front, the wear & tear on the rear mount will be accelerated (also makes sense for why you don't notice an increase in vibration). The back is easy to do a quick check on. When it's bad, i'll just let the sleeve sit all the way at the floor of the mount.

my "sleeve" wasn't top to bottom but yes that is basically what the PAU cradle has. it also extends a good inch or so in each direction to evenly distribute that force. if the vehicle doesn't have the bonne style mount (like a riv for instance) i would recommend notching the cradle as shown in this thread but then use an appropriate spacer similar to the factory equipped cars to reinforce that area and then box it off. if you had done this your cradle would still be a-ok with the puck mount.

It's so cramped underneath with the heatshielding i was unable to check the stock rear mount. It appears one of the only ways to helo this would be a solid poly fill in the stock mount.

the PAU also has the passenger side (front of motor) mount AND a 4th off the trans side cover in the drivers wheel well. i did not know about the 4th til i got underneath the car.

Oh you have a 99+ PAU. I was thinking you had the older one that's like the riv.

turtleman wrote:

Oh you have a 99+ PAU. I was thinking you had the older one that's like the riv.

It's a 99 PAU.

I actually really like the car. LOVE the powertrain.

If i don't get another PAU for my next car i'll be in a 2 door GTP. the 3800 is an awesome work of art.

If you want a new in box rear OEM mount (since it will fit your application) to fill with poly for reinforcement, I will sell it to you for $30 shipped. That's by far the easiest/safest way to stiffen it up more and lets you give it the full cure time the poly needs.

AA,

My front HP mount pushed the puck on the passenger side out all the way to the bracket and the driver side puck stayed in. It looks like I have my whole mount slightly cockeyed. (There's definitely a small gap between the cradle and the bottom of the mount bracket which is annoying.) Anyway, Since the one puck didn't really move, I used that for the measurement. So for the sizes I need, The one side that hasn't moved needs 1" piece of teflon pipe, taking into account the 1/8" for the washer and from that, do you know what's left on the other side incorporating the same 1/8" washer? I didn't want to take the mount out until I have something to do to it to fix it.

I can make these for you this weekend. I'll try to do some math and come up with the required lengths. I think I have enough info. If I leave a little extra, are you able to grind off some material?

AA wrote:

I can make these for you this weekend. I'll try to do some math and come up with the required lengths. I think I have enough info. If I leave a little extra, are you able to grind off some material?

Yeah. I still want the second set uncut, just in case. I gave you the right amount for two seperate deals right?

Yes, I'm going to cut 2 pair for you. Can you give me an idea of what length each piece needs to be? Otherwise, I'll just cut them each 1 1/4" (x4). I assume both pairs are the same size? I would like to cut these today since I have some time.

Thanks, AA

Sorry I didn't get back home until now to answer.

My intention was to have one set cut to size like we figured out and then have another piece that's long enough to cut for another mount but not cut. It would just be the size needed for both ends of the mount but not cut. That way If something gets changed a little bit between the bracket and the mount, I can cut the spare one how ever I need for it.

Yesterday I cut it up into 4 sections, each 1.25" long. I needed to do this in order to bore out the center hole accurately. The longer the piece, the more off center the hole gets as I drill deeper, if that makes sense. They should be ready to mail by tomorrow.

any new updates on motor mounts? poor ol girl vibrates while in drive at a stand still but i dont feel it in neutral

Mine are still holding up after almost 2 years. Keep in mind that hockey-pucking your engine mounts doesn't cure vibration - it promotes more of it. But it's a controlled vibration. This mod will also eliminate the clunk sound of worn out mounts when shifting, applying throttle, etc.

Turtle, did you ever end up putting that rear hockey puck mount in? any issues with it?

I did AA's version of the hockey puck mount today. I completed it with spacers on each end of the sleeve as well. Turned out just as good as I hoped! I haven't driven the car far (only about a mile) but I love the response of the throttle so far and there's no thump, bump, or movement into reverse or otherwise. Hardest part was getting the upper bolt started...





My rubber insert wasn't even really bad...I'm going to keep it for a rainy day.

I wanted to do the hockey puck deal but being in the deep south sporting goods don't seem to carry that kind of stuff so what Brand to order? Since I have never seen or felt one ever