by Leadpipelouie » Sun 24 Jun, 2012 18:13
As I forecast, 3 hours to hacksaw through inaccessible rusted nuts on my exhaust manifold to downpipes !!
Also had to buy E10 E11 E12 and E14 torx external sockets to securely lock onto the heads of the bolts which locate the gearbox bellhousing onto the engine block.
The bottom ones are easily accessible unlike the starter motor ones -they are get-at-able but it is a slow process with initially a small T-bar then subsequently with a 10 mm open-ended spanner which took an age.
If you have ever accessed "Pelican" products website, they have a forum and provide a handy breakdown of removing the gearbox which, in my case, sufficed as all I wanted was to split it from the engine.
They rate this as an "8" on a scale of 1 - 10 = 1 being inflatng a tyre and 10 being a full engine re-build so, not for the faint hearted.
It identifies 2 of the uppermost bolts as near-impossible to get to and suggest 6 ft of extension bars and U.j's but i was very fortunate in that the bolt nearest the lifting eye wasn't actually there !! Obviously, it had had a clutch or similar at some time in it's life and the fitters decided it was a bitch to remove so never replaced it !
I will follow the same process if I struggle . For the last one, I managed to get a ratchet with a long extension and UJ onto it between the two down pipes and it snapped easily .
My knuckles and forearms are skinned and scratched beyond belief .
So, with everything unbolted, my attention turned to securing some kind of lifting strap. there are 2 eyes, front and rear and relatively easy to get to-the rear one is right next to the missing top bolt on my engine.
I took a few minutes out to plan the removal and realised that i may not get the engine high enough to get over the front panel. It is located by 4 bolts protruding from each chassis member which accept 4 nuts to lock them in. As well as being held in place by these 4 studs, each end of the panel was also spot-welded to the chassis leg ??? 6 on the off-side and only two on the nearside ??
It was a no brainer -make life easy, drill out the spot welds and remove said front panel -10 minutes later, and the whole front was off and the job looked so much simpler.
After removal, I have to convert the ingoing engine from auto to manual.
If any of you have ever endured hours of misery trying to locate the input shaft through the driven plate splines on a new clutch while trying to exert rearwards pressure and at an angle, this should greatly reduce the pain as it should now come out, go in horizontally !
That's enough for today but happy that I have made so much progress and have a couple of days holiday to take next week which should hopefully see the engine in-if it stays dry ??