Well,, I finally did it. Hauling what I thought was a moderate load of wood. Neighbor said sure you can have all that. I have never cut wood so dense other than locust when I found out it was Bradford Pear. Last load was 8 pcs. 25 in. through 16-18 in long. I almost wasn't able to get them in the bed. Next day trip out,, had to be there at a phone call. I start up the Beast,, back out and really rough shaking. Long story short. Motor mount almost in pieces. I pulled and replaced the passanger side. Not the easiest chore I've done recently. Truck now shaking only 1/2 as bad. A closer look shows the driver side is shot as well. Looking over this part of the job I see the mounting plate has 3 LARGE rivets where bolts were on the other side So that bracket wasn't designed to come out. Plus It seems I will need 2 U joint extentions in various places to snake up to one of the mount bracket bolts. My question is,,, has anyone pulled and replaced the driver side motor mount and found the trick? I have a 1995 F150 5.0 4x4. Any insight will be greatly appricated. Hope to get this job done tomorrow.

 

Not sure what your seeing on the driver side that is different.
I have MotorCraft mounts sitting on my shelf, and I believe the left and right are identical, so no difference in removal.

Make sure you loosen the right side when you change the left, no point in stressing the brand new mount when you go to lift and replace the old one.

Here is a video link of issues with non-motorcraft mounts, and loosening of exhaust to get driver side:

 

I couldn't find a point on the passenger side to contact for lifting the motor at a sideways ****. Racing jack, 2x12 block of wood where bell housing meets the engine. I wound up taking off the frame bracket. Not a huge issue but NO fun either. Moving over to the driver's side there was a hole in the block 1/2 inch no threads, I fashioned my own adapter for my jack Took a 3/4 piece of rebar cut to fit just short before jacking. Ground down 1 end leaving a lip around the edge to fit into the hole and help stabilize it so it didn't fly away mid twist . Took and old mower blade and cut out the center just wide enough to fit the cup on the jack. Configured a bracket/ brace to hold it straight and bronze brazed re bar to blade center hole. I didn't have any trouble any trouble getting this side to jack up at a twist. Before I had that brain storm I thought I would have to remove that frame bracket and found it was riveted to the frame not just all bolts like the other side did, and that was my issue, not differences in the motor mounts which are the same right and left. Got both mounts in and still shaking like the washing machine on off balance spin cycle. After stepping back,, having a couple cigs. and thinking about all involved, I took a look under the motor and the harmonic balancer. stuck out like a sore thumb. AND there it was, moving around the rubber insert and back and forth. I guess my question might be which came first. The chicken or the egg. The motor mounts 26 years old and both were shot. So did the harmonic balancer cause them to finally come apart or did the broken mounts have a hand in screwing up the H/B. either way I'm off to the parts store and Harbor Freight for a couple tools then back under the "Beast" . By the way I just love my mechanics creeper designed tor gravel driveways,,, a large/long piece of card board box I slide my 63 year old **** about on. Thanks for getting back to me. Sometimes I don't make things real clear and that doesn't get me much help.

 

Either buy $20 no-name mounts and expect to replace them again eventually or buy the Autofab mounts for $100ish.

There's no real point in spending $50+ on "nice" OE style motor mounts when you've already broken them once and can just get the autofab mounts that are a million times better for only double the cost.

The the harmonic balancer failure is likely preexisting and unrelated and you only noticed because without proper motor mounts the engine is free to shake around more causing you to go looking for vibrations.

 

I had got the motor mounts from NAPA,, they are close to me and usually fair pricing and reasonable quality. 35.00 each. I guess I'll be going back to NAPA for the Harmonic balancer as well. 89.00. The Beast is 26 and has 218k on the clock and those were not a huge supprise. So I guess at that millage The harmonic balancer was likely not unexpected as well. I've just never had either go bad on any of the various vehicles I've owned over the last almost 50 years of driving. Guess I can now check the timming without it giving me 15 different readings. At one point some months back I waltzed into another parts store and was asked what I wanted. I told then I needed a 2021 ford pickup so I could just set it on blocks in the back yard and pull parts to fix my 95 as needed,,, that would save me money in the long run in gas and driving time going back and forth. I guess I was just wondering which caused which to fail at the same time cause there was no overlap in time. It was a same day thing all went to S--IT at once. No matter I reckon,, I guess it's like heart failure,, did the clogged artries cause me to have quadruple by pass or was it the new pig valve slinging a clot into all 4 at once. Either way age and millage are always working against us with these older vehicles