87 plymouth reliant le (where is the dogbone strut?)

I have an 87 plymouth reliant le with the 2.5l motor and I need to
replace the motor mounts. I cant find the dogbone strut! Where the heck
is it?

 

What are you talking about? There is no "dogbone" strut
on a Reliant. There is a "front" engine mount.

Ian

 

One of the more common forms of troll activity is to ask nonsensical
questions to see who bites. It's best to ignore them. They'll (hopefully)
grow up some day.

 

I'm not a troll. The haynes manual shows three motor mounts that have
rubber, and a "strut" mount connected to the "rear crossmember". I have
seen this type of strut on a transaxle called a "dogbone strut". Its
short, all metal, and looks like a dogbone.
I have looked everywhere under the car and cannot find anything
connecting the rear of the enginer or transaxle to the chassis.

 

Wow, haynes showing something that doesn't exist? Now lets see who made the
car, haynes, or chrysler? That's right must be haynes is always correct.
Troll!

 

I am not going to dig out my Haynes or (much more useful--ditch the
Haynes) Chrysler shop manuals--my '87 Reliant passed on last November.

I vaguely recall that there may have been some kind of stabilizer strut
such as you mention for high-performance manual-transmission cars. If
your Reliant is a 2.5 then it is one of the 95% of Reliants with an
automatic transmission, and there is no such strut on your car. Which
mostly explains why you can't find it.

For all I know, 1981 Reliants may have had such a strut, but then your
car is not a 1981 Reliant. This is one of the big problems with the
Haynes K-car manual: it is based on the early cars, with a slapdash
amendment chapter for the later cars. (Don't trust the electrical
diagrams!)

There is a strut on your car, running from the crossmember to the back
of the control arm. I think it's called the "stub strut". While you
are down there, take a close look at the crossmember--they are
notorious for rusting and cracking. I had to replace my crossmember,
which cracked around one of the control-arm pivot points, with a
much-better designed crossmember from a '90 Spirit.

.....Ed

 

I am not going to dig out my Haynes or (much more useful--ditch the
Haynes) Chrysler shop manuals--my '87 Reliant passed on last November.

I vaguely recall that there may have been some kind of stabilizer strut
such as you mention for high-performance manual-transmission cars. If
your Reliant is a 2.5 then it is one of the 95% of Reliants with an
automatic transmission, and there is no such strut on your car. Which
mostly explains why you can't find it.

For all I know, 1981 Reliants may have had such a strut, but then your
car is not a 1981 Reliant. This is one of the big problems with the
Haynes K-car manual: it is based on the early cars, with a slapdash
amendment chapter for the later cars. (Don't trust the electrical
diagrams!)

There is a strut on your car, running from the crossmember to the back
of the control arm. I think it's called the "stub strut". While you
are down there, take a close look at the crossmember--they are
notorious for rusting and cracking. I had to replace my crossmember,
which cracked around one of the control-arm pivot points, with a
much-better designed crossmember from a '90 Spirit.

.....Ed