Poor handling caused by bad motor mounts? Link inside, and an observation

[Raydar]

Charlie's '86 comes to mind.

This is a thread I started on Pennocks, a few years ago.

http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/130123.html

Paraphrased...
My question was "How can bad motor mounts affect the handling of a car whose suspension is otherwise in good condition?
The wheels are driven through CV axles. The position of the engine should have no bearing upon how the wheels are aligned."

The answer was that "Bad mounts will allow the engine to move around. That much weight, shifting around, especially in a turn, can cause the car to do funny things."

I bring this up, because I had to go to Tammy's mom's, yesterday for a family pow wow. Since I didn't get to come to the meeting, I decided to salvage the day, and drive the Fiero down to her place. I ended up breaking a motor/tranny mount. (Haven't got under the car, yet, to determine which one(s), but I could definitely feel the engine moving around. Not my first time at this rodeo.)
I noticed that the car seemed a bit less solidly planted than it normally does, so maybe there's something to this. 

[GTRS Fiero]

Worse for Charlie's, because his has cradle bushings, where yours is solid-mounted.

[GTRS Fiero]

Any progress?  Your mounts are probably not stock, at this point.

[Fierofool]

I don't think motor mounts are the problem on mine  The car probably doesn't have 3000 miles on it since the motor and all new mounts were installed. 

[Raydar]

Okay. It was a thought.
Not surprising, though. I know you've done a bunch to it.

[Fierofool]

Even with new mounts, the engine might still move.  I recently saw a posting on PFF where someone was looking for a transmission bracket.  It had broken at the transmission bolts.  Even though I have new mounts, it never occurred to me that they might not be bolted to the cradle very well. 

[GTRS Fiero]

Raydar, did you get the motor mount issue fixed?

[GTRS Fiero]

In addition to the motor mount, what else got broken?

[Raydar]

I replaced both trans mounts last night. The front side mount was separated. Replacements were from Rodney. (Probably should have done that long ago.)

Other stuff? I also broke the steel bracket on the front side of the block, as well as tearing the threaded boss off of the aluminum block casting. (THAT was a hell of a surprise. Lucky it didn't break into the water jacket.)
I have an Allante bracket that will (I'm hoping) bolt in, in place of the broken Deville bracket, and still end up somewhere near the bracket that is welded to the cradle.
I'll have to remove the A/C compressor to affix the bracket, but I need to fix a slow refrigerant leak at the compressor manifold anyway, so I'll try to knock them both out.
A couple of wires (both to the temp sender) also got cut. Not a big deal.   

[GTRS Fiero]

The additional issues were a result of the broken mount?

[GTRS Fiero]

It occurs to me that this would have been bad, had it happened during RFTH.

[Raydar]

The additional issues were a result of the broken mount?

Hard to name a "cause" or "effect". I'm blaming it all on "lots of torque and a heavy right foot".

I nursed it an hour home from my wife's mom's house, with no difficulties other than a non functional temp gauge.  If it had been RFTH, I have no doubt I could have made it back to civilization. Wouldn't have been much fun, however.

[GTRS Fiero]

Did you ever get this fixed?

[Raydar]

Everything's fixed except for the not-so-slow leak in the A/C system. Still gotta figure out what THAT'S about.
But yeah... The engine is (seemingly) securely bolted in place, once again.

[GTRS Fiero]

Did it instantly drive better again, or what sort of difference was there?