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center motor mount

Discussion in 'Generation 1 Prius Discussion' started by ronlewis, Mar 29, 2023.

  1. ronlewis

    ronlewis Active Member

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2016
    938
    188
    1
    Location:
    texas
    Vehicle:
    2001 Prius
    Model:
    One
    I'll discover the answer when I tear this apart, but until then...is it hard to replace that center motor mount? I bought another Prii (back up to 6 again, sigh) and hear a clunk when I first move forward. Got underneath and that center bar with bushings at both ends, I think, between the motor and crossmember, is loose, kinda at the crossmember, with the bracket moving on the crossbar. Connection between that backet and the center bar seems OK. Doesn't seem to be the bracket bolts themselves from a quick attemp to tighten them.

    Does that suggest that my crossmember is damaged? Dang, gotta look, maybe that isn't even an independent crossmember, maybe just part of the uni-frame, or something. Are the bolt holes oversized, or wallowed out? How else could that bracket move? Anyone have a pic from the service manual?

    Like I said, I'll figure it out when I start turning wrenches, but if anyone knows any tricks/tips, love to hear them.
     
  2. ronlewis

    ronlewis Active Member

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2016
    938
    188
    1
    Location:
    texas
    Vehicle:
    2001 Prius
    Model:
    One
    What a PITA. This car I bought had the cat stolen even though the PO had installed one of those shields to prevent theft. I've always thought those were silly, and so did the thief. He just sawed through it. Didn't protect the cat, but sure made it a PITA to install the new one.

    But, I got that done. However, I saw the loose torque control bracket while doing that, and it turns out that the shield caused that too. The installer attached the theft shield to that control arm bracket with lock nuts on top of the OEM nut. For whatever reason, those nuts wouldn't come loose, and they were aluminum so quickly rounded off. I had to cut the bracket off with a grinder. First the bolt heads underneath, and it will wouldn't come out. So I ground off the bottom half on the bracket. Still stuck, beating with a hammer did nothing. Finally, don't know what I did, but it just popped off. Two hours for something that should have taken 30 minutes top.

    And yeah, the bolt holes in the crossmember are wallowed, because the shield installers didn't tighten all those bolts (I could see a gap under the bolt head)..Yeah, strange - the bolts aren't tight,allowing the bracket to move, which wallowed out the cross member, and yet, the bracket still wouldn't come off.

    Not sure what I'm going to do now. I have a crossmember on my parts car, but it's kinda hard to get to right now in the storage yard. I'm thinking I'll just install a new bracket/bolts, then tack weld the bracket to the crossmember in a couple of spots