Riviera Body Mounts
Posted: Tue Jul 03, 2018 4:42 pm
If you are following along, you've noticed that I replaced some things that made the Buick run much better. Consequently, I've been using WOT much more than before, which has been great right up until this afternoon.
On the way back from dropping Jenn off at the alignment shop to pick up her Seville (separate story not shown here), I noticed a strange rattling and some odd steering feet, especially when going over bumps around corners. So I looked under it.
But first, here is an illustration of the engine cradle and suspension of that car. The cradle is basically a large rectangle with 4 ears coming off the corners. Two small at the front and two large at the rear. There are 6 body mounts for the cradle, two at the front and 4 at the rear. Two of those are at the rear corners of the rectangle, the others at the ends of the ears. Here we go. Driver's side front. Not terrible, just a bit or dry-rot. Passenger's side front, same thing, but taken from a different angle. Driver's side middle (rear of the rectangle). Seems fine. In the background you can see my shiny new (painted with black header paint) catalytic converter and resonator. Passenger's side middle. Where's the rubber? Driver's side rear. Seems fine, but pay no attention to the rusty floor or the terrible weld seams. Passenger's side rear. Where is the washer? Why is the bolt so far in? Driver's side rear as viewed from the bottom of the body. Something is up. Similar shot from the passenger's side. Oh... So it would appear that a combination of failed washers and rubber have caused 2 of the 3 attachment points of the engine cradle to pull away from the body. So much torque? The good (bad?) news is you can still buy all of these parts from GM. So I will probably fix it.
Other related bad news is the driver's side area that needed rust repair when I bought it has rusted more. That all leaves 3 questions:
1. Should I really fix this?
2. The GM bushing listing shows different lower bushings (part #4) as "white" or "green". GM would have put colored stripes on the OEM bushings to denote different hardnesses of rubber. My FE1 should have the softest ones, but I don't know what that is. I'll probably buy the "white" ones as they are $4 less than the other ones.
3. Why do I keep buying rusty cars?
On the way back from dropping Jenn off at the alignment shop to pick up her Seville (separate story not shown here), I noticed a strange rattling and some odd steering feet, especially when going over bumps around corners. So I looked under it.
But first, here is an illustration of the engine cradle and suspension of that car. The cradle is basically a large rectangle with 4 ears coming off the corners. Two small at the front and two large at the rear. There are 6 body mounts for the cradle, two at the front and 4 at the rear. Two of those are at the rear corners of the rectangle, the others at the ends of the ears. Here we go. Driver's side front. Not terrible, just a bit or dry-rot. Passenger's side front, same thing, but taken from a different angle. Driver's side middle (rear of the rectangle). Seems fine. In the background you can see my shiny new (painted with black header paint) catalytic converter and resonator. Passenger's side middle. Where's the rubber? Driver's side rear. Seems fine, but pay no attention to the rusty floor or the terrible weld seams. Passenger's side rear. Where is the washer? Why is the bolt so far in? Driver's side rear as viewed from the bottom of the body. Something is up. Similar shot from the passenger's side. Oh... So it would appear that a combination of failed washers and rubber have caused 2 of the 3 attachment points of the engine cradle to pull away from the body. So much torque? The good (bad?) news is you can still buy all of these parts from GM. So I will probably fix it.
Other related bad news is the driver's side area that needed rust repair when I bought it has rusted more. That all leaves 3 questions:
1. Should I really fix this?
2. The GM bushing listing shows different lower bushings (part #4) as "white" or "green". GM would have put colored stripes on the OEM bushings to denote different hardnesses of rubber. My FE1 should have the softest ones, but I don't know what that is. I'll probably buy the "white" ones as they are $4 less than the other ones.
3. Why do I keep buying rusty cars?