After 5-6 hours of extended "fun" trying to get the bolt hole, bolt and the elastomeric wrapped vibration isolator all lined up --- It finally went in.
I tried to wrap a 2 ton come along to edge the engine and the engine cradle into a bit more favorable orientation. After about an hour of messing about, it actually did help some. Unfortunately, the cable then blocked access so I couldn't get the bolt to go in the hole! The last 1/2 hour was trying to get the come along to let go. The position I put it in, blocked the release lever so it was a hard one! Came || that close to cutting the cable but finally got it with a couple pry bars and a screwdriver.
Then tried to move the inner bushing of the isolator by driving nails into the elastomer and forcing it over. Had no success until I heated the nails up red hot. Made a big stink and a lot of smoke, but no real help. To get the nails back out, I had to heat them with a heat gun. Tried the torch, but the elastomer caught fire pretty quick. Probably all the penetrating fluid sprayed to get the original broke bolt to come out.
Finally wound up beveling the bolt end and tapping the threads down a bit smaller and heating the isolator up pretty hot to soften the elastomer. That worked, but the bolt was far from hand tighten! I'm guessing about 50-70 ft-lb of torque to spin it. Naturally, there is no clearance to get an impact on it and with all the stuff in the way, I could only get about 1/10th of a rotation at a time. Did I mention that there is about 2" of thread? I stopped counting at how many times I repositioned the wrench at 200! It was better to count the number of times I barked my knuckles ... ouch.
Anyway. The sucker is back together. Another 45 min maintenance chore that took 5 days!:laughing:
