Broken Motor Mounts—How to find replacements?

[Bob Blaylock]

My 1997 Contour “Sport”, Duratech Engine, automatic transmission, is in the shop for transmission repair. I just today received the following email from my mechanic:

You have 2 broken motor mounts. They are located on the sub frame. Middle front and middle rear. They are unavailable from the dealer and my usual sources do not have any. You could check on line to see if you can find them.​

Any advice as to where and how to obtain replacements for these motor mounts? Time is an important factor, as the car is otherwise close to being ready to go, and I have a rental eating up my resources.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Here are some pictures to clarify which parts I need.

Both of the affected mounts attach to this subframe:



And here are closer looks at what remains of the existing mounts.

 

[gmorrell]

Those are pretty torn up.

Rockauto (rockauto.com) has front and rear mounts for the 1997 V6 auto trans cars, you can get a whole new front mount, or just the insert, and complete rear mounts. I looked it up, it appears that everything is in stock. The Anchor and DEA parts for these cars are pretty good quality, I've used them, and pretty much the only game in town for a 17 year old car. Good luck.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Those are pretty torn up.

Rockauto (rockauto.com) has front and rear mounts for the 1997 V6 auto trans cars, you can get a whole new front mount, or just the insert, and complete rear mounts. I looked it up, it appears that everything is in stock. The Anchor and DEA parts for these cars are pretty good quality, I've used them, and pretty much the only game in town for a 17 year old car. Good luck.

Could you possibly provide me with links to the exact parts that I need? My wife and I spent some hours earlier prowling various auto parts stores, and I found it difficult to discern a match between what parts they thought they could obtain, and what parts I actually need.

I just a short time ago looked at rockauto.com, on advice that I received in a private message, and was not able to clearly identify which parts I needed. I'm not accustomed to feeling so clueless about such things, but this has me seriously befuddled.

 

[svttour]

If you cant.find them I have both brand new ford

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Someone clarify, please, whether I understand something correctly.

I think I am beginning to understand that these parts are not the actual primary mounts that support the weight of the engine and transmission—that these are what I've seen referred to as “roll resistors” or “roll restrictors”, and serve only to restrain the engine/transmission in a cushioned manner from rocking back and forth. Is this correct?

 

[gmorrell]

At Rockauto.com, search trail: Ford - 1997 - Contour - 2.5L V6 - Transmission Automatic - Transmission Mount.

We usually call them roll resistors, some call them transmission mounts. Potato - Potatoe.

Rockauto's catalog is not link-friendly. Go to the home page and click the "Part Number Search" tab. Select the manufacturer from the drop-down menu, fill in the part number, it will take you to the part description.

Front mount insert only: ANCHOR Part # 2887
Front mount whole assembly: DEA Part # A2873
Rear mount whole assembly: DEA Part # A5209

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Front mount insert only: ANCHOR Part # 2887
Front mount whole assembly: DEA Part # A2873

That'd be this part:

Which does indeed look like a match for this:

Rear mount whole assembly: DEA Part # A5209

Doesn't look quite exactly like a match for this, but perhaps it just has some extra mountings so that it will work in other applications beside this Contour.:

I think I'm convinced to go ahead and order these parts, but my wife wants to go check with a Ford dealership first. I'm skeptical about that doing any good, but perhaps we will anyway. If nothing else, it'll give you or anyone else a chance to provide some additional assurance that…

…is the right replacement for…

…and also for “SVTTour” to get back to me about what he has to offer.

 

[contour_r_us]

Someone clarify, please, whether I understand something correctly.

I think I am beginning to understand that these parts are not the actual primary mounts that support the weight of the engine and transmission—that these are what I've seen referred to as “roll resistors” or “roll restrictors”, and serve only to restrain the engine/transmission in a cushioned manner from rocking back and forth. Is this correct?

Bob - the short of it is that you are CORRECT in your understanding, as you posted above.

 

[gmorrell]

I think I'm convinced to go ahead and order these parts, but my wife wants to go check with a Ford dealership first. I'm skeptical about that doing any good, but perhaps we will anyway. If nothing else, it'll give you or anyone else a chance to provide some additional assurance that…

If you're worried about the configuration of the front mount, just get the ANCHOR Part # 2887 insert, I've used these and they work just fine.

If you want real Ford parts, get them from svttour. He is pretty much our last best hope for OEM parts.

If you want to go to the dealer, knock yourself out, but bear in mind that this car is 17 years old, and it's based on a 1994 design that was released in 1995, so it's basically 20 years old. Ford and the dealership network routinely obsolete all parts for cars that are 10 model years old, the stuff gets scrapped or loaded up on trucks and sold for pennies on the pound, even parts for rare, limited production models. Look at my sig, I'm the original owner of all those Ford Red-headed step-children, I know something about finding Ford parts. You will find some occasional exceptions to the above, but trust me, I've looked at my most of my sources for your parts, they're not there, and more stuff disappears every day.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

 

[Bob Blaylock]

One of the parts that RockAuto sent was wrong. I still need this part.

SVTTour, watch for a PM. I'll need this part FedExed (overnight) to my mechanic as soon as possible. I guess it's too late to get it out today, let's try to make a deal to get it out tomorrow.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

DEA Part # A5209…

…turns out NOT to be the replacement for this:

 

[svttour]

Bob Im sorry I wasn't paying attention to the thread before you ordered. That front roll was way off. I sold my front over the weekend, But I can get you another one. I will try my best to see if I can do it overnight but its going to be tough.. Ill pm you my number.

 

[gmorrell]

Sorry that happened, tho it wouldn't be the first time a parts supplier had a bum cross-reference.

The ANCHOR 2887 insert should work for your front mount. It inserts in the old mount, and the mechanic bends the metal tabs around the mount frame to hold it in place, just like the factory part. The manual trans front mount in the later manual trans SVT can use a similar insert. Sometimes these inserts cover several applications, and you might need to trim some rubber to make it work as the suppliers are trying to reduce their inventory. It's our punishment for driving old cars.