While I was at the Mopar Nationals 2013, I noticed that the top of my fan shroud was feeling a little rough, like my fan was hitting it. I thought that my driver's side motor mount was starting to come apart. When I left the grounds, I jumped on it "a little" to show off, but heard a loud noise so I let off and drove to the hotel. When I popped the hood, I noticed my fan shroud busted into 4 pieces with the top gone. the pieces were laying scattered in the engine compartment.
I changed the motor mount, which came apart at the metal to rubber glue point.
After pricing Schumacher's fail safe motor mount and found out their torque strap was $75, I bought one from my local auto parts for $5.78 then decided to make a torque strap like I made for my big block car. I used scrap metal, a sway bar bushings and washers from my garage and a spare big-block distributor hold down plate.
I cut a piece of strap steel to fit my k-frame's front sway bar mount. I then cut a piece of steel to fit against my block and motor mount bolts. Drilled holes for the top plates to bolt together then welded some more metal on the bottom plate to make a mount.
I used all-thread 3/8 rod, some nuts, lock washers, and nylon locknuts to hold the sway bar bushings. I double nutted the middle and used lock washers in between them to adjust how tight I want the bushings.
Funny how much damage these <$6 motor mounts can cause if they come apart. So far it cost me $40 for another used fan shroud but could have killed my radiator too. This engine isn't going anywhere!
