for most of you, the pic will say it all:



if it's not immediately obvious, the trans housing is resting on the subframe. not good, right?

i've seen a few posts regarding this, but none that were definitive in their advice.

if, in fact, i'm looking at a tranny mount job, is there a how-to on the subject? i wasn't able to find one.

Autozone has some useful info. It may help you on where and how the mounts should be installed.
http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/1b/d3/e2/0900823d801bd3e2.jsp

wow, I never knew what the end of the atx looked like ...

but yeah it being onthe subframe isn't good, sounds like the trans mount is bad

thanks, i'll have a look at that autozone stuff.

Have you addressed this yet?

I was under my Contour yesterday and just noticed the same thing.

I found an Anchor mount 2873 for under $50 from Rockauto. Anyone use this one before? This is a DD with a limited future in my family so it's not getting any performance stuff.

Steve

*** FOLLOW UP ***

thanks to tony and apple for their replies. turns out the tranny mount was toasted - and i mean real bad. hardly any rubber left. it was basically as if the two metal components were attached without any dampening materal at all.

so, suffice it to say, with the new mount in, there's plenty of clearance now.

BUT THE BIGGEST BENEFIT -- and one that still tickles me with delight -- is that swapping the mount also solved my lurching shift problem! and i thought my tranny was going out!

of course, hindsight is 20/20, but apparently the lurching shifts were actually the movements of the tranny/engine being transferred to the frame, since the mount wasn't doing it's job.

ah, sweet victory.

at any rate, the job took about thirty minutes. all bolts were easily accessible (once the air filter assy is removed) and there was plenty of room to work.

Total cost: $85 for new mount (Tousley)

Good to know!

I've got the Anchor mount sitting on the workbench and will probably install it today.

Steve