Dan's 1976 MGB: Engine Removal Day! (8/6/2007)

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Engine Removal Day! (8/6/2007)

Yesterday, I pulled the engine and transmission.... It wasn't very difficult, just involved some juggling of the hoist, engine/trans and car..... After lowering the car down from the jack stands where it has rested for the past couple of months, I rolled it back to the edge of the garage (needed the clearance in front) and jacked up the rear and put it on jack stands. This was to get some angle for the transmission to clear the front end, as I didn't have a tilt adjustment for my hoist. I then tied to bonnet up to the garage door opener to get it out of the way.

I had decided to use straps to wrap around the engine, as opposed to chains on the rocker studs, I felt a little more comfortable doing that. Until I actually wrapped the straps around the engine - they seemed awfully thin, but supposedly have a working load of 500 pounds each.... I had to cut a couple of feet off the ends, as once I got them ratcheted in, there was too much strapping to be able to tighten it fully. But got that taken care of.

So with the straps in place, it was time to bring the hoist into play. I roll it forward and clunk, the legs hit the front suspension spring pans! So now I need to raise the front of the car a bit to get clearance for the legs. When I do that, the car is almost level again! Oh well, lets proceed and see what happens.

I hook the strap hooks onto the lifting hook, crank the handle a couple of times, and the engine pops right up! Kathleen is the assistant here, and I start alternately cranking the engine up and pulling the hoist back to move the engine forward. Something was holding me back, and I realize that I need to support the tail end of the transmission to get it up off of the rear crossmember. Unfortunately, my rolling hydraulic jack is still under the front end, holding that up..... Ok, slide of couple of jack stands under the front crossmember, remove the jack, then raise the rear of the transmission enough to get it off the rear crossmember.... Try and move the engine again, hmmm, still stuck..... Oh, wait, the shifter is still in! I had put it back in the car to make sure the transmission was in neutral before I rolled it back (forgetting that the driveshaft was disconnected so it didn't really matter) and forgot to remove it..... Once that was out, the engine starting moving again.

Until it got stuck again. Kathleen went around the passenger's side, and saw two wires still connected. Appeared to be related to th speedometer drive, perhaps. Once those were disconnected, we were about to swing the engine out further. But now we had to clear the bonnet latch panel, so back comes the jack under the front crossmember, out go those jack stands, and now it's a combination of lowering the front and inching the engine forward until the legs of the hoist clear the spring pans, then the whole thing swings free!

The next step was to lower it to the ground and remove the transmission, which wasn't too bad. The clutch came next.

So now I have the engine on the ground, awaiting removal of the flywheel so I can then mount the engine onto the engine stand and open it up! That will be tonight's challenge, as the flywheel can be a pain to remove.

Back on the ground