Getting the damn insert in the back mount?

I just got my energy suspension mounts yesterday and got the front insert in, but the rear one is just to damn hard. Is there an easier way to put them in? I know some of you guys have done this before. How did u do it?

{edited} at first i thought you were talking about the shock bushings in the front and rear control arms

i changed my (energy suspension) motor mounts recently. here goes:

the car was shaking like crazy. i figured it was a motor mount. a local mechanic pointed out a broken one, and i bought a new (aftermarket) mount and replaced it. the front one was the most painful in my opinion because of how i had to reach over and under the radiator at the same time and try to line up bolts. i almost never got the mount in place. i had to beat the thing with a breaker bar and a hammer from above to get it to slide into where i could bolt it in.

the car still shook like crazy, so i inspected the rear mount and found it to be almost more deteriorated and broken than the front one. it was a pain, i agree. i took not only the mount off, but the bracket from the transmission itself off and lined up the large bolt through the mount like that. i used a very long (over a foot long) 1/4" drive ratchet extention to put in that one bolt that is virtually impossible to get to. you slip in the extention with the 17mm socket behind the mount, reach around and line the bolt up (not an easy task) and just play with the thing turning it until it finally lines up correctly and you can tighten it up with a ratchet. the bolt on the right side and front are easier to line up, but you still have to pry the mount over a little at times to get everything to line up. finally, after getting the mount's bolts started, i reattached the bracket to the transmission (another nightmare of prying and throwing fits because i couldn't get the bolts to line up with their threads. this was only less aggravating than the front mount due to the fact that i had a little more room to work with as it's easier to take out the air intake and move the duct that goes to the heater coil over out of the way than it is to take out a transmission to make room.

so, yeah. solution = very very long extention with 17mm socket. squeeze that behind the mount and it guide it with your finger onto the bolt. you can install and remove the bolt relatively easily like this. afterwards it's a matter of aligning the remaining bolts.

the car still shook like crazy when i drove so i threw a fit and finally replaced the remaining two mounts. they were very very easy mostly due to how easy it was to get to all the bolts. to shorten the story, this didn't fix the problem. replacing the driveaxles did, though. i'm still sore from working on my car so much lately.

What I did was just removed the rear tranny support put in the insert and then put it back together. Also on the front one I just pulled it out and then put in the insert and reinstalled it. It was so much easier than trying to wedge myself in there and put the dumb things in.

Yeah, the front was one moderate, it's just u had to bang it down with a bar to get it to line up. The back one is just so hard to get too since you have the all those hoses in the way, including the fuel line. Should I take off the bracket on the tranny or should I take the back mount off and then insert it?

take the mount off the tranny it is hard as hell to try and take the tranny mount off the frame without the motor out.

What I did was just removed the rear tranny support put in the insert and then put it back together. Also on the front one I just pulled it out and then put in the insert and reinstalled it. It was so much easier than trying to wedge myself in there and put the dumb things in.

I did it this way too.

heh, i bought whole new mounts. i never thought of just getting inserts. oh well.

^^^^ your new mounts should last a while too, I actually kinda regret getting the inserts cause of the vibrations, oh my god, you couldn't ask for anything more horrible when at a stop light. I should've kept my order of the whole front and rear mounts but wanted to save money. But then again, they did solve my long un-solved problem. Hoorah!