All is sorted on Big Red now, and she is super smooth !!!
I'm so relieved !
The findings were quite interesting...
The engine bracket was bent, so the machine shop fabricated a new one.
When the bracket was fitted and the mounting was put in, there was still some tilt on the mounting !?
The guys from Align Pro lifted the motor and went back to check the manufacturers specs and dimensions on the chassis.
Turns out the actual chassis mounting point that is robotically welded to the chassis rail was tilted/skew ???
This constant twist on the mounting together with the vibration and pull from the motor bent the engine bracket over time
The guy who owns Align Pro has a good mate who's a coded welder (welds high pressure gas lines and does underwater welding, etc.) to come in and give an expert opinion...
He spends some time inspecting the welding to see what was going on, and his finding was that the welds indicate that it was done in the Nissan factory
It looks like the mounting plate must have pulled skew in the chassis jig and the robotic welding machine welded it on skew (you can tell, because the weld gets progessivly less towards the lowest tilted side and eventually dissappears completely without completing the weld.
So the Jap that was quality control in the chassis welding department must of had too much SAKI
and missed that the bracket was skew in the chassis jig.
The bracket was re-aligned and all is well !!!
Now it feels like a totally different vehicle !
It's sooooo smooth, it's like floating down the road in your 3 tonne road legal tank !
Interesting to think though that the engine mounting that gave in and had to be replaced was under strain constantly for 10 years before it snuffed it ... I bet a Land Cruiser's wouldn't have lasted that long
Thanks to all for the input.
See you in the stix
