The engine is almost out. Please answer these questions.

[lendaddy]

I am a couple hours or less from driopping the motor and have hit a bit of a roadblock. Here are the remaing issues.

1. What are the wrench sizes to the oil cooler hard line? They are over 25mm I know that but I need to know what two wremches to buy.

2. The only wires I removed from the tranny were on the passenger side and there were two wires in one connector. Is this for both the reverse backup and speedo? I dont see anymore?

3. The hex head bolts (8mm) on the CV joint couplers are incredibly tight. Any tricks here? I feel like I am gonna strip the heads before they break loose, or worse yet pull the car off the jack stands!

4. How high do I have to jack this thing up? I have it as High as my stands will go on the torsion tubes . Do I have to put spacers under those? I think I will need 4-6 more inches to pull the motor out. (yes the bumper is off)

5. What is the balance point for the motor and tranny together? I assume well behind the sump but?


Thanks again guys.

[Kurt B]

All we can do is help you were we can!
Are you taking pictures of all this? Let us know how long it takes to drop the engine BTW...it sure sounds like a nightmare, is it?


3. The hex head bolts (8mm) on the CV joint couplers are incredibly tight. Any tricks here? I feel like I am gonna strip the heads before they break loose, or worse yet pull the car off the jack stands!

Use degreaser to totally degrease the outside of the boot where the bolt heads are. If you have to use a small screw driver to dig out anything else in their heads, do so. Fit must be tight, and pack em in. For the right inner and left outer, stick the wrench in the head, get behind the car and push with the bottom of your foot.
Rotate the wheels so that each head is on the bottom and do them a bolt at a time that way. That's how I did it, and it took a long f'ing time.
For the other two joints, get behind and just pull like crazy and they'll come loose.

[lendaddy]

Na, It's not that bad. I probably have 3-4 hours of work into it so far and with just a couple to go I'm pretty happy. Especially since I've had no help thus far. I spend alot of time sitting and studying things with a beer in hand you know. I have a tv in the garage so I use it as time to wind down from work. Get home at 7-8 and work in the garage till 12 or 1 am it's actually quite relaxing.

[brandett]

1. Hard oil line is 30 and 36 mm, working on mine right now. Its a tough one.. You need long wrenches and patience. Search the forum on hard oil line for more info.

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

Be sure, on the cv-joint hexheads, to thoroughly clean out the hex recesses. spray 'em with carb cleaner or something. You need to get the wrench into those recesses as far and firmly as possible, and they tend to pick up a jot of junk.

When I last took my engine out, I hoisted the rear end rather than jacking it--used a blanket as padding, heavy rope and then a good comealong hooked to a joist in the barn.

To see where the engine/trans CG is, look for the padeye used for single-point lifting of the engine, attached to one of the small case-separation-line throughbolts near the front (transmission end) of the engine. That's the CG.

Stephan

[John Brandt]

Those M8s come out in a jiffy if you have a long extension or combine several smaller ones onto your ratchet with 6mm hex socket to clear the car's body. Then you can use a cheater bar and get some leverage

Lendady, have a bucket ready when you undo that big oilline!

[lendaddy]

Yep, did the carb cleaner thing last night, Also degreased the underside of the tranny and mounting area. Plenty of time for her to dry till tonight. I also thought about extensions and a ratchet. I think I will try that. any ideas on my other questions?

[Superman]

Get the CV fasteners clean and be sure the tool is seated. I use two or three long extensions so that I can get plenty of force on it.

CG is between the tranny and the sump. It is roughly where the #3 cylinder is. Just forward (toward the front of the car) of the sump plate. Lowering the engine is where you really should make sure you have a little help. This is going to be something around 600 lbs you will be balancing on the tip of a floor jack.

You're best off with the set of four oil line wrenches for your car. They're not terribly spendy and they work very well. Alternativelyu, you can use two LARGE adjustable (crescent) wrenches.

The two tranny wires are for the backup lights. The speedo sensor is attached to the passenger side of the tranny somehwat near the CV joint.

The pelican article is accurate in terms of how high the car needs to be raised. I believe the torsion bar tube covers need to be about 22 or 24 inches off the ground. It's pretty high. My fog lights nearly touch the floor.

[Rot 911]

The balance point is just about where Super has it. You need to have the rear end of your car about 34" off the ground for clearance if you leave everything on the engine. That is measuring from where the bottom of the rear bumper would be if you still had it on the car.

[lendaddy]

34" holy bejesus! What do you guys do for jackstands, 55 gallon drums? Oh well this is gonna be interesting!

[Superman]

With your rear bumper removed, you will not need to get it quite this high. the furniture dolly idea is a very good one. I have one. Last I saw (a week ago) the dolly was on sale at Harbor Freight Tools for about $15. They also have some tall 6-ton jackstands that are handy. Once the engine is on the furniture dolly, you can use a jackpad in the jack slots to raise the car higher, one side at a time.

[Rot 911]

I went to Sears and got the heavy duty jackstands with a 22" lift. With those under the torsion bar covers it got the rear end up to around the 34". Remember that dolly is going to take up about 3-4" of space.

[dtw]

My CV bolt cheater:
-spew some carb cleaner to clean out fastener heads
-tap drive in with a hammer to make sure you're fully engaged
-attach u-joint breaker bar and extension of choice
-preload breaker bar with your hand, then give the end of the bar a few smart blows with a hammer. Should pop the bolts loose no problem. I did my '72 POS and my '70 parts car this way- saved big headaches. It sucks when you think the car's going to roll off on you from wrenching so hard!!

[TurboRuf]

lendaddy,

Wait! What happened? Why are you dropping your motor?

Maybe I missed a recent post.

[lendaddy]

My throwout bearing gave up the ghost. And the pisser is that at the time it had never run better. Such is life huh.

[TurboRuf]

Ouch, sorry to hear that. I call my car "The Never Ending Project", welcome to the club.

But when she runs... it's all worth it.

[john_colasante]

it's actually quite relaxing

Please be sure to repost that feeling after you strip out a transmission mount or drop the engine off the jack or forget to install the starter ring gear after the drivetrain is all in.

[Wrecked944]

Is it possible or advisable to use an air wrench on the CV bolts?

[Jim T]

Originally posted by JanusCole
Is it possible or advisable to use an air wrench on the CV bolts?

I wouldn't do that - that seems to be asking for trouble. I'd just clean them out as best as possible, get the tool seated as best as possible, and get a lot of leverage on it.

I have all the air tools, but to be honest, rarely use them. I've seen them cause a lot more harm than good - not really a big fan.

[Wayne 962]

I like to use the very large jack stands. They are like $30 a pair (I think that we sell them), and you don't have to do anything unsafe...

-Wayne