While underneath our '88 GL = yesterday cleaning and re-lubing the shift linkage (seems I have to do it annually ), I = took a look at motor mounts which I have suspected to be in trouble for some time. We have had alot of "driveline lash" which = is best described as rubber banding of the van on sudden accel or decel. = Also have had intemittent clutch shudder. I expected to see the forward = (tranny) mount tearing itself apart. Nope. That one is fine. Must be = the others at the rear of the engine. Look, wiggle, shake, yup, the = rears have small separations in them. Can these be replaced? Uh, looks = like these mounts are a unit with the entire cast aluminum engine = plate. Ka- Ching $$$$. Must be another way.

Decided that beyond the separation = of rubber from metal the rubber itself didn't look so bad. Here's the Mickey = Mouse part. I found 4 places where engine motion was being permited by = these separations. Into these gaps I drove 4 handmade polyurethane = wedges. The polyurethane originated with pink skateboard wheels and was = previously used to make racecar suspension bushings. Cuts easily with a hot knife.

Without getting into riduculous = detail, the gaps should be obvious to you if you shake the engine. The way to "lock" the wedges in should be obvious too. Sounds stupid I = know, but... Boy the van feels much different. The rubber banding = is gone. No clutch shudder -yet. It just feels much tighter.