i know there are 4 total mounts..would the 2 mounts on the cross member be considered the front & rear mounts? i read somewhere that the side mounts normally dont go bad. the mount i ordered looks exactly like the one on the right in this pic

 

nm i think i just found the answer to my question. can anyone offer some tips on making the remove of the cross member more easy? i know i should support the trans with a jack...just wondering if theres anything else

 

Contact knight_yyz as he did this install on my Max last year, he may have some tips for you

 

yeah to get the rear bolt use a 17 with a couple feet of extensions from the driver side wheel well. its a sick little trick...

 

jack up the car. put it on stands. Get underneath and loosen the bolts going through the mounts and loosen the bolts at the front and the rear crossmember. Jack up the trans with your jack until it moves about 1mm. Remove all the bolts in any order you choose and drop the crossmember. remove the mount and reinstall the new one.
To reinstall put the bolts through the mounts first then do the front and rear crossmember. Torque to spec after they are all started. Don't tighten the new mount until you have all the bolts in. It will make it easier to get all the other bolts started.

 

well i decided to tackle the job this afternoon and it went pretty smooth until i came to the bolt on the rear mount. any other tips on removing that bolt because i tried just about every angle and couldnt get enough room to loosen that bolt. bolt on the front mount came off just fine.

 

has anyone experienced a rotted out lower raditor support when dropping the crossmember? im afraid to drop mines for ES bushing ones cause my rad support looks rusty as hell. im afraid if i drop the crossmember that it will never tighten back up again unless i get a new support.

 

I have seen a few picks of 00 with pretty badly rusted rad supports, if your appears that bad then I would take care of getting it replaced before doing the ES MM swap.

 

definitely no point in stiffening up the mounts if they are bolted to a rusty rad support. The crossmember is bolted to that so all the stress from the engine wanting to move will be transferred to the weak point. ie the weak rad support