Alright, here's the whole story for those of you who are bored. About a week ago, my truck started to shift from 1-2 a little harder than usual. It was barking the tires just driving around town. I was like, hell yeah! But then, Saturday morning on the way to work, the steering was kinda hard to turn and the pump was whining, so I was like sh** my PS pump is dying or leaked the fluid out. When I got to work, it was still dark but I checked the fluid and it was fine. On lunch, I went back out and looks again and was surprised to see the header was touching the steering shaft, where there used to be an inch of clearance. I thought it might be the mount, so I looked under the truck to see the oil pan was not flush with the crossmember and confirmed it. So later I drove it out to my mom's to use her garage and fix it.

Here's how I did it, in case anyone else has to do it. Do it at your own risk obviously. This is for the left side. For the right, the starter might have to be removed.

First, disconnect the steering shaft if. Now, put a floor jack with the piece of wood on it to distribute the load, under the deep part of the oil pan on the side you are working on. This is not recommended, but I don't have a hoist out there so I didn't have a choice. Lift it about an inch after it touches the pan. Remove the 3 15mm bolts holding the mount to the frame and frame bracket. Now, jack it up some more until the mount starts to lift off the frame. Crawl under the truck and remove the 4 15mm bolts from the engine block. The 2 back ones can be gotten easily with extensions. The 2 front ones, I had to just use a 15mm socket directly on the ratchet and stick my hand all the way up there to get them. Now, much to my surprise, I was able to carefully remove the mount without even loosening the header! The top piece of rubber had completely fallen out, and the bottom piece was rotten as hell! Now slide the new one in and use red lock tight at 30 lbs of torque (I think) I couldn't fit a torque wrench down there anyway, so I just did them as tight as I could in that awkward position with the ratchet. Drop the engine until the mount lines up with the frame holes and bolt them in with lock tight as well. Reconnect the steering. Now, the hard shifts are gone and the engine just sounds smooter from the inside, i guess because it isn't vibrating through the frame like it was. 1999-2000 guys watch out, your mounts may be worn out too. Oh yeah, the new one had a lifetime warranty and only cost me 50 bucks.

 

Lift the engine via the oil pan? eek. Would hate to the mess that would make if it broke!

 

Not a big deal...the engine sits on the oil pan when it's on the floor outside the truck.

 

Mine has 2004 mounts... I think?
I know they looked good when we did the 6L swap..

 

meh...im thinking about making some solid mounts. im curious if any power is being lost through those rubber mounts letting the motor twist.

 

That reminds me, my 2003 6.0 had been in a front end wreck and the left mount was broken as a result. I had to reuse one of my original 5.3 mounts and look what happened I can't really complain though; the thing lasted 8 years. I guess my right one has another 3 years left in it.