Body mounts

[George Blake]

I have the dreaded s-10 cab corner rot over top of where the body mounts are.
Does anyone know if the s-15 jimmy and ours are the same? I know the s-15 is 2wd and ours is the T-15 4wd but I can't find anything specific to the 4wd platform. What I'm trying to get ahold of is the actual body mount. I ordered one in polyurethane from JCWhitney that is just the cab mounts. Is there a specific kit out there?
LMC truck was pretty useless. They wouldn't tell me one way or the other.

 

[jjorgensen52]

Re: Body mounts

s15 and T15 are the same in terms of body mounts. I don't know about sheet metal (I would have figured LMC ) but the body mount kit can be had from energy suspension, I do not remember the PN off the top of my head but I got mine from turbotime

 

[George Blake]

Re: Body mounts

Thought I'd add something else. The floor pans that I bought to patch up where the floor rusted through....no body mount area. There is a "box" welded to the bottome of the stock floor pan with a weld nut in it that the body mount bolt threads into....not there. Do guys have to make these or are they something that is reusable?

 

[Grimgrak]

Re: Body mounts

83-94 blazer 4wd
ens-3-4-123g
bbx05a01

Thats the kit I have from energy/rpm
The mechanic said the front two mounts fit but the others dont... I've got like 8 mounts so I guess i've got a couple spares for the long bed... Let me know which part #'s wind up fitting for you!

 

[George Blake]

Re: Body mounts

I wonder why they wouldn't fit? They are all the same mount. I got money on he couldn't get the bolt out without it turning into a bigger job than he wanted to do. Syty's tend to be like that.

 

[BigBadSmoosh]

Re: Body mounts

I had this issue on a 2wd s10 I had years ago.. I cut out and rusted metal and had some thicker sheet metal bent into the "cup" shape.. welded it onto the new floor pans and bolted it up.. worked great, my foot didn't go through the floor and the body didn't bounce when i drove the truck.

 

[myclone]

Re: Body mounts

George,

Can you post a pic of the rotted area you need? Ive still got the front half of a 4wd blazer I cut up to use for making my headers/DP and the front body mounts are mint and I could do some surgery on it to maybe get you the pieces you need.

Lemme know.

 

[MadPSI]

Re: Body mounts

I wonder why they wouldn't fit? They are all the same mount. I got money on he couldn't get the bolt out without it turning into a bigger job than he wanted to do. Syty's tend to be like that.

When I did my body swap I got the energy suspension poly body mounts, and they fit everywhere except the rear cab mount flanges (the ones that have a large bracket and are raised considerably). The hole is smaller for some reason. A die grinder will open up the holes so they fit, but you have to grind the hell out of them. A dremel tool will take you forever, you need to bring out the big guns...

So, yes, there are two different sizes. GM engineering at its finest...

 

[Grimgrak]

Re: Body mounts

Apparently he says that the middle and rear bushings were too big so they couldn't fit into the holes of the oem bushings... Guess i'll grab a hole saw and cut a bigger hole to make them fit??

I wonder why they wouldn't fit? They are all the same mount. I got money on he couldn't get the bolt out without it turning into a bigger job than he wanted to do. Syty's tend to be like that.

 

[MadPSI]

Re: Body mounts

Apparently he says that the middle and rear bushings were too big so they couldn't fit into the holes of the oem bushings... Guess i'll grab a hole saw and cut a bigger hole to make them fit??

Good luck with that...

It's going to be next-to-impossible to enlarge the hole with a hole saw, unless you have some method I'm not familiar with. I guess you could weld a piece of metal to the flange and use that as a guide, but I didn't have that luxury.

I don't know what was meant by "rear" and "middle", but as I said, the only ones that are too small (on a Sy at least) are the rear cab mounts.

 

[Grimgrak]

Re: Body mounts

I have a Sy as well but i was referring as the 2 front ones being the "front" the two near the rear of the cab as the "middle" and the ones where the bed is as "rear" so you had the "middle" ones that were too small? Weird...

Good luck with that...

It's going to be next-to-impossible to enlarge the hole with a hole saw, unless you have some method I'm not familiar with. I guess you could weld a piece of metal to the flange and use that as a guide, but I didn't have that luxury.

I don't know what was meant by "rear" and "middle", but as I said, the only ones that are too small (on a Sy at least) are the rear cab mounts.

 

[George Blake]

Re: Body mounts

Got some work done on it today. Getting ready to go to inlaws' for Christmas. Found out a couple things. Body mount on the frame is OK. The box under the floor panel is fubar. Body mount (rubber) is non existant. Put the impact on the bolt and it just spun. The welded on "hat" just spins in the mount box. So all of this will have to be fabricated. More fun with the welder!:tup: It took about an hour to get used to the mig. I'm using a Lincoln electric HD welder like you get at Home Depot. It's doing a really good job. I'm not using gas shielding but may purchase it for future projects. It's a $150 option.

If you are gonna do this, what I found to be easiest is use a cut off wheel to make a nice purchase point and then run through it with a sawzall. Makes short work of cutting it out and doesn't make near the sparks. The new mount is being fabbed from 1/8" thick stock plate. The original stuff was very thin and what just spot welded on to the bottom of the floor pan. There are channels stamped into this plate to make it stronger. Unfortunately the channels did their job. They channeled road debri down into the mount box and destroyed everything in it.

Support the body with a 2x4 and a jack to distribute the load. I jack it so that the body rose about an 1/8" so I could remove the old stuff. Can't wait to see how it handles after this. There was NOTHING holding the body from squirming around on the front two corners. Think about this when your racing them. This is probably why I kept getting rattles, vibrations, and cracks in the B pillar at the joint at the top rear corner of the door.

 

[George Blake]

Re: Body mounts

Did some more progress....

Got the floor cut out. The rusted box that the mount goes through can everything cut out and cleaned up. 3 spot welds in the front and the assembly came loose. Kinda scary. I thought I was gonna have to fight it out because the weld nut rotted off. Nope. Whole thing just lifted out. Nothing was holding the body down to the perch on the frame. I'll put up some pics if anyone want to tackle this in the future. The body shop gave me an estimate of $400 labor + parts. I bought the welder for $260 and the polyurethane body mounts for $100, and the floor pans for $120 for both sides. The floor pans are thicker than the OEM. I'll have to make a box for the mount to go through and put an 1/8" thick steel plate under the floor pan to weld the mount box to so the force is spead out over about a 1 square foot area.
The shop thought the mount box was gonna be salvageable. Nope. That $400 wouldn't even have come close.

 

[George Blake]

Re: Body mounts

Pics:

 

[91blazins10]

Re: Body mounts

I have to do the same thing on my typhoon both sides as well, Im not looking forward to it:squint:

 

[George Blake]

Re: Body mounts

Use a cutoff wheel to make a slot and then use the sawzall to make the cuts with lots of WD40 to cool it. Make sure you support the body when you do it. I have the truck sitting on jackstands to support the frame and then 2x4 on a transjack supporting the body in the front.
Get some por15 and a wire wheel for you drill and take care of the perch and stuff while your in there.

 

[sy2675]

Re: Body mounts

I am replacing all the body mounts on my SY, what should the bolts be torqued to? Thanks!

Rich

 

[George Blake]

Re: Body mounts

50 foot pounds. Make sure the bolt is still intact. If it is almost rusted through like mine are, make sure you replace the bolt.

 

[sy2675]

Re: Body mounts

50 foot pounds. Make sure the bolt is still intact. If it is almost rusted through like mine are, make sure you replace the bolt.

thanks alot man!

 

[George Blake]

Re: Body mounts

Finally made some progress.
I got the hardware (shells,bolts, washers, shims, etc) from LMC truck. Very good kit. It comes with rubber bushings.
Then I just put the polyurethane in the new hardware.
#1. Use cardboard sheet to make templates.
#2. Sawzall and cutoff wheel will be your friend.
#3. You'll get REALLY good at welding
#3.5 Welding on your back SUCKS!!!!!
When you do this, don't do like me.
I jacked the body up and used the jackstands on the frame to stabilize the truck.
I then used a floor jack to jack up the body to support it on that corner while I did the sheetmetal....the floor jack slowly lost pressure over 4 days and today when I buttoned it up (so I thought), the door now doesn't close....I now have to shim up the corner body mount I worked on to lift the A pillar area up so the door will come up.
Please learn from my mistake so you don't have to do it.
The factory had a weld on threaded "hat" and the floor was solid. What I did was after getting everything back in was I had the body mount in and drilled up from the bottom through the bolt boss in the new shell from LMC. I drill up through all 3 layers. Body mount box, support panel, floor panel. Then I used an 1 3/4" holesaw bit and drilled down from the top so I could access a flanged nut from the top with a socket. I tacked a thick washer onto the mount box inside to spread the force out some over the sheet metal. This way, it's a quick removal.....especially good since I have to shim up the body now

You know the nice thing? After working so hard welding on my back, my welding standing over the piece has improved dramatically.
Something else I found out was that at Lowes you can get polyurethane joint sealer in a caulk gun type tube. It is 1/2 the cost of seam sealer, remains flexible, is moisture cured(like por 15) and you can REALLY stretch this stuff after it's dried. I have NO drain holes in my mount box like the factory did because I sealed every seam with this stuff.
I can't wait to see how this thing feels after doing the other side.
If you ever get fluid in your carpet and it doesn't smell like antifreeze, your corners are probably rusted out.