Engine swap woes.

...............Have somebody rapidly pump the clutch pedal while you're pulling on it.

Fuel line? I've forgotten that one before.

Remove the starter...

Put a piece of ply-wood on your jack pad. Center the pad on the oil drain, or slightly forward. With the jack, have your friend move the engine up and down slightly, while you grab the pea-shooters and shake left to right, pulling. Caution you don't pull the car off the stands. Don't even think of getting under there.

I know it looks real hick like, but I support the car with 4x4 blocks on un-split oak firewood rounds. I've dropped cars from jack stands and don't trust them. You have to push a car pretty hard to push it off a wooden block. I've not managed that one yet.

Thanks all, beer's arrived and so I'm done working on the car. I double checked the fuel line and tried pumping the clutch. I've taken the top bolt from the starter already. Will probably try removing it altogether tomorrow. Just doesn't seem to want to give. I've done some pretty hard yanking on the thing with no luck, seems to be siezed at the bottom. Starting to think the PO decided to "modify" something. Will look for a lag bolt connecting the front bumper to the case.

Thanks again all. Eric Gadoury

say what???? Mark Detro Englewood, FL

Make sure you aren't lifting the engine with the jack. Personal opinion is that the jack under the engine should be just barely touching. Otherwise, you may be causing the binding.

Chris

Is your tin binding??? I've had some seals so tight that they don't give any room...

I always find that rotating the engine up and down is the first step.

For jack jack stands, concrete blocks under the torsion bars are close to good.

Binding on the jack is an issue. I've found the $12 red ones are many times too short.

Bajas and buggies are much more fun for a pull.

T.

Finally got out the engine. To avoid embarassment, I won't say what I did wrong. But I'm sure it's a typical newbie mistake. Now to shoehorn the new

Thanks again, guys. Eric Gadoury

................Oh come on! Tell us.

.......OK, I'll break the ice: Several years ago, I had my wife's altima jacked up with the rear wheels removed for new brake pads. After getting them installed, I was worried that they were too tight so I decided to spin the rotors some in a way that would only be understandable if you were caught in a time warp from the 60's like me. Of course, having a few rear wheel drive ACVW's sitting nearby didn't help me remember what the hell I was working on either. So........I started the engine, put it in gear and proceeded to drive it right off of those jack stands and almost into the front end of my vanagon. The first thing that I did was jump out of that altima and look around to see whether my wife or any of the neighbors had seen what I'd just done. Nobody saw a thing.........whew!

"EGad987" wrote

Seriously, what Tim said, tell us. Everybody has to start somewhere and everybody makes newbie mistakes. I'm still very much a newbie at wrenching on these beasts and am the king of stupid mistakes. Let the group know what the problem was so that others might learn from it. Surely it can't be as silly as what Tim did. :o)

-- Scott

Jesus... First I'm communicating on USENET with neighbors, now cow-orkers ;)

I say, lift the engine, you need to take the weight off the transmission shaft. Lift until you see the wheels start to drop. That's when the engine weight is being lifted. Hell, lift until the car starts to rise a bit. Then drop the engine a bit, then up and down until you find the sweet spot.

Mike Kelly... Yes, that one.

I'll bet you took the bolts out of the transmission mounts thinking it was the lower engine bolts....didn't you? LOL

"DougnKaren" wrote

lol ... I didn't but I probably would have done that if I hadn't first read here in Ramva about someone else doing it.

Ok, here's one of my newbie moves. I was bleeding the rear brakes on my '72 Super which, of course, has dual circuit brakes. You can probably see where this is leading. I was kind of in a hurry because a thunderstorm was approaching ... that's my excuse anyway. :) I was keeping a careful watch on the reservoir to make sure I didn't let it run dry. Curiously, it didn't seem to be dropping much. Then, one time as I depressed the pedal .... "Hmmm, what's that sucking sound?" Yep, I had been watching the front section of the reservoir instead of the rear. Doh!

We have a winner!!! Who'd think that a bolt going into the engine would be in the *front* of the bellhousing. Rethinking that engineering degree I've been thinking about.

Eric Gadoury

Don't feel *too* bad. Here's my dumb story from long ago:

It was a hot and sticky August afternoon and I was sweating to shove a 1600 DP into a '63. The customer was impatient and the engine wasn't co-operating. In desperation, I was using a length of 2 X 4 to lever the thing in but it still wouldn't go more than half an inch.

Finally, I crawled underneath to see what the heck was going on. When I saw it, I cried and laughed simultaneously:

Screwed onto each lower engine stud were the 17mm nuts which I had very carefully put on so that I wouldn't lose them!!

Speedy Jim (Engineer)

..................Ha Ha..............I'm still way dumber than any of you guys.

neener neener neener

Oh yeah?? Have you read "The Tow Job" in the story section on my web site? Speedy Jim

....................Whoops..........I forgot about that one.