chromal

I'm having the exact same problem on my '98 CX hatchback. Seems in retrospect, this maybe wasn't the best design choice Honda could have made.



If you take off the front bumper bar, there are two holes that look into the hollow frame area where the (formerly) welded left front mount nuts reside:



I am also reluctant to cut into the frame, if only because I don't have a welder! I'm half wondering if I could enlarge the hole in the front (behind the bumper brace), where at least the weight of the vehicle/engine isn't being supported. Gonna sleep on this problem, fortunately my civic hasn't been my DD since I got the mazda3 in '10.

Hidenplanvew

Use something to pry on the bolt while turning it out..

chromal

I actually used a stanley foobar (essentially a crowbar with a mean pickaxe-ish hammer head) to pry down between the AC compressor bracket/mount arm and the mount itself. This got me a few more turns on the bolts before the nuts started slipping even with the added downward pressure.

I might have better luck with it with a longer lever and/or some help, but ultimately, I expect I'll still need to get into that frame to get the next set of bolts tightened onto the next set of nuts, and hopefully weld them back down so that the next time I do that mount removal, it isn't this involved.

Thornapplenut

This may be too late, but i may have a solution for those who run into this problem. Thanks to chromal for the pics and the inspiration that came from them. I'm new at posting so bear with me. I had issues with both bottom engine/tranny mounts. i ended up using a cutting wheel on my angle grinder and cut mounts and bolts off. using same cutter, i opened up the area under the bumper bar.



The two openings under the head light were enlarged

Then, my neighbour welded up these using 1/8" flat bar and bolts:


Using a pry bar in the enlarged opening, i dislodged the nuts inside the channel, and used a magnet to pull them out. Then i inserted the new plate/bolt combo into the channel through the enlarged openings, and using two long pieces of metal bar/wire like chopsticks, i was able to manipulate them into the bolt holes.

Former User

^Nice job!

cetcivic

Agreed

spAdam

iTrader: (1)

Good work. Always awesome when a noob makes a good, useful post!

Hope you replaced the torque mount though. That one is facked.