I was walking around my scoot the other day and saw my front exhaust heat shield very close to the frame tube. I went down to look at the motor mount and it looked ok. I have new front and rear mounts on the shelf. So I took out the front mount and put it along side the one on the bike and they looked different.

The bike is 10 years old and it only has 7500+ miles on it. I don't get to ride that much. When it was new I had a lot of vibration but it went away. Now ten years later I have very little vibration. So I never had a concern about the motor mount going bad. At 7500+ you wouldn't think the mounts would need to be replaced.

I made a How To video showing how I replaced the mount and I cut the mount in half to see why it failed.

Here is the video, enjoy. The project is in real time to help the DIYer's, so it is long.

My Link button will not open. I can't Link to YouTube to get the video player into the Thread. So here is the Link you will have to click on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLHx...ature=youtu.be

Moderator edit: Here you go Tom!

 

I love it when people take the time to document (either video or pictures) their fixes and mods. So in the end, the issue was each time you changed the oil filter it would drip into the mount and slowly cause damage ?





.

 

The dealer did the service about five times/five years. Pre paid service contract. I've been doing it ever since. They do spill oil all over the mount. How much it gets cleaned off is any ones guess.


I worked for a HD dealer as a detailer. When a tech finished doing a service he would bring it over to us to power wash the oil spillage off the front mount. Now I would do a thorough job. Who knows what the others did. When I started doing my own I would cover the mount and it kept the oil off.


So I think the oil was not cleaned off at the dealer good enough. I didn't see it because the oil already soaked into the rubber. And who knows if washing the oil off does any good. As you see in the video the rubber is pretty porous. I think the mount needs to be covered at the very first oil change and every time it's changed. Not covering it just once will start the damage.

 

My front mount pretty much fell apart after about 7500 miles when the bike was a year old. I don't think it had anything to do will oil contamination since I made sure if there was any spillage it was quickly cleaned up. I'm not saying that the oil could be the culprit, but a lot of these mounts are not installed with proper spacing and are stressed out from day one out of the factory.
The new mount was installed correctly 5 years ago and it's still in good shape.

 

Yep, there are a number of factors that make these mounts die before their time. Oil is just one of them. One thing to take into account. The oil that's left on the mount is dirty and not clean and acid free. This oil is coming right out of a dirty filter.

This mount has been around since 1990 And no major improvements. P/N 47583-90B as of 7/2012 Last two numbers, 90 = first year used. The letter B = third generation.

So HD upgraded/improved the mount two times. So an 04 mount is what generation, A,B? Who knows. The old and new mounts did not look any different to me. Maybe different rubber compounds.

 

Thanks for taking the time to do a video

 

TomT - thanks for this video - perfect timing for me - I'm waiting on a delivery of a front mount. My '01 mount is pretty tired. I was going to wait for the winter - but as soon as it gets here I'll install it.

Thanks again for taking the time to do this.
George

 

Any oil on the surface of a rubber mount will penetrate into the mount over time, if it is soaked enough the rubber will eventualy turn to the consistency of jello. its a non reversible process. Either prevent oil contamination by shielding the mount during the oil change or clean of after by blasting it with brake cleaner to degrease is then soap and water.

 

All info is good. There is my winter project.

 

I worked at a HD dealer as a detailer for two years. This is actually how I cleaned the mount when the techs moved the bikes to me after they where done with service. The brake cleaner they had was the kind that did not harm rubber. You can't use the brake cleaner you get from the discount auto parts stores. Right on the cans it says not to use on rubber. The counter guys don't know what brand is safe.