964's, Fear of Heights, & Building Pyramids

Well . . . The engine & transmission are finally out, and sitting snuggly in my sorry excuse for a garage awaiting the fun part!! I agonized over removing this for a long time, but everything came off without a hitch. Well, almost... I cracked the plastic dome shaped portion of the fan shroud.

The 3.6L looks ENORMOUS sitting on the ground. I have to say that the photos in Anderson's book just don't do the engine justice in terms of size. It's a tough load to handle, even with an engine hoist and two big jacks. While there is one flimsy little ring on the forward part of the engine that looks like a lifting point, I haven't used it. Does anyone know if it is actually a lifting point?

Fear of heights. After whinning about how I was going to get the car in the air, and then down again, up & down again, and then talking about towing it to a garage with a lift, my very patient (and lovely) wife said something very caring like, "Hey, stop being a wuss, get your ass down there and just take the motor out. You can do it, you always do!" She's very patient, but she's seen my projects before. Shame is a powerful motivator. To my surprise, the car went up like a charm, one side at a time. First the left side went up, then the right. After about 4 cycles, the car was 2.5 feet in the air!! I couldn't believe it. For those who contemplate this, the two pair of 6 ton jack stands from NAPA and the 3.5 ton jack were key to my confidence underneath the car.

Building pyramids. Well, no matter what I tried, I couldn't get the car high enough to just roll the engine/tranny out from underneath while it was either on the jack or on a dolly. We ended up supporting the motor with a lifting sling and then sliding a sheet of plywood under it, but on top of 3 or 4 lengths of 1 inch pipe. With the pipe in place to serve as rollers, we then made a path of plywood over the soggy grass to my work shop (did I mention this operation was conducted outside in the cold rain all day?), and slid the engine over the pipes about a foot at a time, each time replacing the pipe to the front.

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my questions about this project so far. I'm sure I'll have more in the near future!


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Steve
'89 Carrera 4
'62 190 SL

Nice one Steve,
Keep us posted on the rebuild. Are you taking pics? I would sure love to see some.
Good luck.