I picked up a nice looking dogbone at the junkyard today. The poly is in great shape.

I got it home and it is too short for my '88. Should I just sell it or will the stress on the motor mount be okay? I saw on somewhere that it is required that you pull the engine backwards by 250lb (Newton) to match the dogbone properly, so I don't know if this is OK. The '88 is about 1/2 inch longer.

I can't move the poly to my '88 dogbone because the '88 dogbone's inside tapered whereas the 86' one continuous width all the way through each hole.

[This message has been edited by Saxman (edited 03-21-2008).]

I just went to check and it is definitely too short - not too long (I was doubting myself for a minute).

[This message has been edited by Saxman (edited 03-21-2008).]

I've always had to pull my engine back when replacing a dogbone. It always seems to shift forward when you take the old one out. I've had mine in my GT since shortly after I bought it in '99, and have never had any problems with it. I took it out, got the old bushings pressed out, had it smoothed and polished, and had to pull the engine back about a half inch when I went to put it back in. Same thing with my son's 86SE.

Andrew,
There are two bolts on the engine bracket to the dog bone above the alternator. Loosen those about half way and then it is alot easier to hook the bone up. After that you can tighten the bolts back up and pull everything into place.

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Thanks, Dwayne. That's what I had to do to get the old one off.

I'm just worried about leaving that much stress in the other mount indefinitely.

How's the 3.4 doing?

I can't move the poly to my '88 dogbone because the '88 dogbone's inside tapered whereas the 86' one continuous width all the way through each hole.

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I put the poly into a lathe to resize it for the '88 dogbone. I wouldn't try to force the shorter dogbone into the '88.
DM

Since I don't have a lathe, I may be able to just cut it down to the right shape to fit my '88 bone. We'll see how things go.

quote Originally posted by Saxman: Since I don't have a lathe, I may be able to just cut it down to the right shape to fit my '88 bone. We'll see how things go.

You can use a drill to do this also, if you are careful. Just put a bolt through the poly, and use a sharp chisel or a rasp.

quote Originally posted by Saxman: I just went to check and it is definitely too short - not too long (I was doubting myself for a minute).

I had exactly the same problem and exactly the same doubts.

I don't know if most people already are aware of this (partly because it hasn't been mentioned yet on this thread), but even the stock Fiero dogbone lengths often vary, so when somebody gets one, whether from a junkyard, or even brand-new (e.g., from The Fiero Store), sometimes it'll fit, and sometimes it just won't. For that reason, Rodney Dickman's adjustable dogbone ended up being a good fix for the "too-short" dogbone problem I'd encountered earlier with my own V6 Fiero.

For the benefit of others following this thread, this often unexpected fitment issue that can occur even with a brand-new, but actually not-so-standard-length Fiero dogbone, also is discussed in the thread, "AdjustableDogbone," which is accessible via this link: https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/087608.html .

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