tightening body mounts

Has anyone had any luck tightening a body mount in order the get rid of the creaking/popping noise its causing. Ive tried almost everything and I can’t get the nut on the bolt to even budge slightly. Any tips? If I can’t get it loose I guess I could cut it off and put a new bolt in, but I rather not do this unless I have to. Also does anyone think putting a shim or two in there would solve the problem(to take up the extra slack)? Any help is appreciated, the noise is really annoying and it gets worse when its colder outside.

have you tried spraying down the rubber donuts of the body mounts with silicon spray lube?

I had a similar problem with the ones located under the front floor pans. I think these ones flex the most being fairly centre and over time age and shrink allowing slop. You can't tighten these up any more than they are as there is a sleeve that slides over the bolt that passes between the two rubber halves. This sleeve actually tightens up hard against the floor and the nut. The chasis plate that sits between these rubbers moves up and down. The only fix is to replace the mounts with new fresh rubbers. Not a huge job, but you will need to loosen off all body mounts and jack the body up off the chasis one side at a time to allow the extraction of the top rubber. Fixed my noisy mounts.
Quick check to eliminate which noisy mount it is, is to take off the bottom rubber half, bolt, nut and sleeve leaving just the upper rubber locked in between the chasis and body. The noise will go if you get the right one. I even drove around for a while without the mounts on both sides until I got around to replacing them.

Wayne.

Yes you can add shims to the body mounts. Its actually one of the procedures in a TSB (SB00-10-S001) for correcting "steering wheel vibration, shimmy, or nibble".

Procedure is..

1. Inspect and measure gap of #1 body mount.
2. Add shims to #2 and #3 mounts to correct gap at #1 mount.

There should be a 2mm gap between the frame tab and the upper mount puck. If less then that loosen #2 and #3 mounts and add 1 shim to #3 mount and 2 shims to #2 mount.

Well, I tried loosening the bolt today, but I still can't get it to move at all. I ordered new cushions from St. Charles and will just have to have a mechanic put it in. I hope this solves the problem. Thanks for the help.

i'd say cut the bolts, get a 1" body lift, put it in.

then you'd be rockin'!

frontera,
Do you know what that sleeve that slides over the bolt is made out of. I ordered the cushions but now im wondering if i should have gotten a new sleeve also, im thinking it could have busted if it is plastic. Just wondering.

Gizmo42,

do you or does someone else have access to the Tech Service Bulletins? I'd like a copy of SB00-10-S001. I have replaced the "popping" mount under the floor pan with new mounts but the noise has come back. I'm interested in what the shimming does and why you need a 2mm gap. No gap on mine.

Thanks.

Send me a PM with your email addy and I can send you a pdf file of the service bullitin. I've saved alot of them dealing with 2nd gen rodeos on my home computer.

I've taken the liberty of posting this online for you or anyone else who wants it in PDF form, complete with photographs from the original TSB.

http://isuzu.ciebiera.net/PDF/TSB/SB00-10-S001.pdf (6MB)

-also-

http://isuzu.ciebiera.net/PDF/TSB/SB01-08-S001.pdf (10MB)

Enjoy, just please save this to your computer rather than downloading it every time you need it.

-Phil

Thanks to both Gizmo42 and Boaz2020. That's great. I'll do some tinkering and see what happens. Another thought I had about the popping noise is that it is the mounting metal on the body. Perhaps it has weakened over time and it's flexing and popping as the chassis pulls away?

Purchased the 6 washer/spacers required from the dealer. Probably could have bought something similar and cheaper from a harderware store. 60mm diameter, 12mm center hole and 2mm thick galvanised steel. Will pop these in soon and see if all is better. There was no space in the #1 mounts. Certainly not the min 2mm required. This may be contributing to the noise. Will see.
Cheers,
Wayne.

Thanks for posting the sizes. I need to do mine too. My front ones have a gap of probably 3-4mm between the mount and lower rubber peice. Need to shim mine up to get some gap between the mount and upper rubber peice. Thats been down on my list of things to do though, now that I know the size of the shims I can start thinking about doing that (after de-mudding the underside of course :shakehead )

The pop is gone! I think we've been chasing the wrong thing. I always thought it was the mounts that were loose somewhere. But it wasn't. The pop results in there being no gap in the top side of the front #1 mounts as per the tech bulletin. I've added the washers and the gap has been restored from 0mm to 4mm and the pop has gone. I think there is a slap effect on flex when it is less than 2mm that passes on to the #2 mounts under the front floor pan. Worth a shot if you have the same noise.
Cheers,
Wayne.

Good news :ylsuper:

Thanks for the follow up. I really need to get mine done one of these days (after I clean all the mud off again :shakehead ) I dont have a pop in mine anymore, that turned out to be LCA bushings. But I definatly dont have the right gap in the #1 mounts and have all kinds of other noises from the front.

I believe that my wife's Honda Rodeo is suffering from what is described in this thread. However, the earlier links to the pdf's of the TSB's are not good now. Anybody have a scanned copy, link, etc that they would post so that I know exactly what's involved?

I seem to have the same thing, happens more when its cold like it has been recently. Sometimes you can feel it underneath the feet.

Is there any "bad" side to this not being repaired?

Are you sure it's not your ball joints? The last time mine went bad, they squeaked like crazy.

Are you sure it's not your ball joints? The last time mine went bad, they squeaked like crazy.

Well for me this definatly isn't a squeakin. Its a clunk or knock.

The clunking feeling I have under my feet is due to the sway bar bumping into the shock. I will commonly feel this when turning out of a driveway.

Is this what causes all the disturbing noises down there? Several times I have pulled over looking to see a wheel ready to fall off, first time I jacked it up (looking silly as hell prolly) and rocked the wheels thinking it was a wheel bearing or ball joint.
Incidentally what's up with this "deteriorated ball joint grease seal, replace ball joint ****"? As soon as I bought the thing I noticed them and got some rubber mastic tape (the kind that sticks to itself like crazy-just don't let any grease get on it before it sticks) and wrapped them, effectively making new seals. Used a couple bands of plastic cable ties to ensure they didn't unravel, then pumped em full of grease.
Yeah it's redneck but this is a $200 truck for me. I'm in San Diego and it rains once every 17 years here.

The clunking feeling I have under my feet is due to the sway bar bumping into the shock. I will commonly feel this when turning out of a driveway.

Guarantee it's the body mounts. Anyone wants the TSB send me a PM with your email address.

'99