To be honest, I think uncljohn is correct in my situation. I do believe the cv joint is failing. I can hear it at low speeds, but not so much at 55 mph. I searched youtube to see what all would have to be removed to do the axles but I found nothing....well except one where the dude removes the strut tower...hope I dont have to do all that. But Ill drive it til it gets worse since days are still cold and the garage roof leaks everywhere. Never replaced manual trans cv joints, only autos.

 

Never replaced manual trans cv joints, only autos
================================
half shafts don't care whether they are manual or automatic.
The service information pretty much paralells everything else that I have done. The objective is to get the end of the have shaft that goes through the bearing on the steering knuckle out of it. This is done by removing wheel, rotor and stuff with the nut removed.
To get clearance enough to slide things through you have to some how disconnect the front suspension from the steering knuckle. The book recommends removing the ball joint with a pry bar or some times known as a Pickle Fork. I have yet to figure out how to do this with out damaging the ball joint. I have done it on occaision, but not with a predictable outcome. Removing the strut makes it happen too. What has worked well enough for me was to unbolt what ever the lower control arm looks like from the body of the car. This can generally be done with out damage and it will go back where it came from with out much difficulty. This allows you to swing the lower portion of the strut around far enough to make room with the steering cranked one way or another to slide the stub axle out of the bearing in the steering knuckle. Then the half shaft comes out of the transaxle. All instructions say drain Transaxle first. I have never had the need to. I know I had a Saturn apart twice to change that bearing I just don't remember having to drain the transaxle. Half shafts are available at auto parts stores for something well under $100.00 as a rebuild and have never had a problem with them.
I read your comment on your garage bringing back memories of pulling a transmission a few times in a row on a Gremlin under the same condition. I don't live there anymore and don't miss it.
Good luck!

 

Im going to back out of what I thought was wrong with the car. The top mount is worn out, so I bought a new one. Saw on another forum that napas and other stores parts are junk..something about a frown mount...and should buy straight from the dealer. I guess I will find out later, but it needs replaced now. Just waiting for the rain to go away.

I recently cleaned out the intake with carb/intake cleaner, boy was it nasty...but had to get it running after I did this, and the entire motor was bobbing back and forth...so that is how I know.

As for the cv axle...i was wrong. If it were the axle, it would be making noise, but mine does not.

I will replace the mount, and if the noise continues, I will look into struts. The towers are beginning to make knocking noise when i push and pull on motor, but that maybe mounts also.

Anyways, Ill post results when I get mount changed out and post a picture of the old mount.

 

Sad but true, most aftermarket parts for S-Cars are junk and that includes the top mounts.

 

Is this mount still good...lol...?

 

I guess I can not really make a statement such as this and support it. I buy most of my parts as aftermarket and in general from CarQuest. While in some cases one is going to run accross something that is not right and it does happen and it has happened to me. Something that is reverse engineered can be bad.
But also when the design from the Factory is bad AND it goes uncorrected for a decade as the Sensors for the Heat and to turn on the Fan (2 on the early Saturns and 1 only on the later one) the aftermarket sensor is not only instock nation wide in volumn but from some times multiple sources you can not expect that to get corrected even though you think it should. I have owned cars that were new from the ground up on day one and driving them hard and fast racking up the miles and wearing them out even before the dealer has them in stock. And this includes some that parts never did show up even at the dealer. They had to be ordered into the country. Shocks and Brakes on my Dodge Aries come to mind.
And frankly late Saturns that were what what ever you want to call them, corporate platforms, propiatory assembled or just Badge Engineered come under that last catagory. There are no parts distribution for some of them and they have to be ordered from Dehwoo or Opal or whoever it was that made the things and drop shipped to some remote location of the state you live in.
I had an Olds Cutless with a W30 package on it that was hard on brakes, it turned out that they were not in stock anywhere but what was would not fit it. Turned out that they were the same front brakes as used on a Pontiac GT a year earlier. Those I could find.
And also in my opinion, a dealer who used to be a fair reputable source for mechanical repairs and parts have turned into the worst of the price gougers around. The last time I had my Saturn in at the dealers before it closed a $350.00 Estimate that I had made to undertake the repair when I actually decided to bring it in 2 weeks later turned into a $3500.00 repair when the nice young man with the tie and the clip board approached me with the NEW current estimate including $75.00 worth of windshield wipers. A piece that it and others had nothing to do with the reason I was there. He and I had a difference of opinion as to need and neither one of us were happy about it. The repair actually ended up at $750.00 and I had to make a second trip when it still was not working right.
In this case, no one else was willing to attempt a repair and it was one of the few things I could not do myself.
Will I go to a dealer or recommend one for parts and repairs.
Yes, with a qualifier.
Have I lost faith that a dealer is in actuality a viable place to go to.
Yes I have. I no longer think that way and that is way too bad.

 

Well I finally figured out what the thumping noise is. With the front upper motor mount being soo worn out, allowing the motor to bounce foward...the exhaust has a loose hold-down thingy. So every time the engine bounced...or shook...the exhaust was hitting the underside of car. Struts are all good. Also the heat shield is somewhat loose making noise also. So the problem just got smaller...thank God!

 

There is probably nothing worse then a loose hold down thingy. They are so hard to diagnose!

 

Exhaust Hanger...I coulda said thingamajiger

 

yuh! You coulda. But you know? I could never remember whether Thingamajiger is one word or two! It took me quite awhile to actually diagnose a problem I had was a damaged catalytic converter.
To be honest not the first one I have had, but this time it was a different type of symptom and it was causing a symptom that only showed up once in a while. I actually parked the car for about 2 years because I could not figure out what was happening. I liked the car too much to get rid of it and could not figure out why it was oddly problimatic. One day I woke up with an epiphany as to what was going on, replaced the catalytic converter and found it was internally broken and partially plugged. Fixed the rest of the minor problems. Repainted it and made a repair to the interior. Screwed up the paint job and now it needs it again. It is on my round tuit list along with getting the front seats re-upholstered. Hang in, if you like the silly car, you'll get it fixed just because being stubborn is a way of life.