Transmission/engine removal!

This post covers several weeks of real time, sadly.

First out is the transmission. A simple enough task - six bolts to come off, each of them coming loose pretty easily. The main concern was getting the transmission out and down without dropping it. As usual, I rope Frank into helping out. Between the two of us, one on each side, we pull the transmission back and then lower it to the floor. It's not terribly heavy, I've moved it around a couple of times since.

Fast forward several weeks, to yesterday. Ernie had said he'd come help out when it came time to get the engine out, as he has a hydraulic lift. After some delays, Ernie got in touch earlier in the week and we made plans for him to cruise by and chip in for a while.

While I shuffle various crap around to make room, Ernie attaches chains to the engine.

Ernie cranking on the lift to get the arm up to the starting spot.

Once the lift is in position, we drop the chains through and get them locked in, and lifting commences!

Not a lot of room to spare beneath my garage door.

Before putting the engine on the engine stand I snagged last year, Ernie suggests removing the clutch, which is quite filthy looking. This will be another rehab task over the winter. Ernie grabs a socket wrench and has the clutch off in short order.

Once the engine is secured to the stand, it's time to rotate the engine to get the remaining radiator fluid out. There's rather a lot in there! And klutzy me, at one point I spill most of it out of the pan onto the ground. Fortunately I have a full box of cat litter in my basement, a fair chunk of which gets used.

Now that the engine is out, and the rear axle has been removed, I'm very nearly ready to have the car body hauled to be stripped! Just a few minor tasks remain.

Rear axle removal

Now that the springs and shocks are out, the rear axle itself can be tackled.

Aside from the mount holding the rear axle itself, the last piece needing removal is the cross strut that connects on the passenger side.

It takes a bit of effort, but the bolts holding the strut on come out.

Baggie time!

Now the rear axle is held on solely by the mount that is attached inside the trunk compartment.

First task is to remove the two small screws holding this protective plate in place.

The nut itself has a locking plate that needs to be bent back down, to allow the nut to spin.

After a few whacks on a flathead screwdriver with a hammer, the locking plate is bent down sufficiently. At least, I think it is. Later on, helpful neighbor Ernie beats on this plate a bit more as we're working on the last bit.

Next up is to fashion a brace for the rear axle, to prevent it from moving around too much, or too far, in bad ways, which can damage the u-joint within. I opt for a simple solution - a 2x4 and zip ties!

I saw several small pieces off the extra portion of the 2x4 to build up the ends, so the brace will fit beneath the main body of the axle and the ends are high enough to support the axle arms.

While trying to strap the brace onto the axle, I find the small black zipties I'd purchased just weren't going to do the job, so another run to the store for some far beefier ties.

Three on each side seem to do the trick nicely.

At this point, I hit a stopping point, as I have trouble loosening the large nut within the trunk compartment. This is a two-man job, one to work on the nut and one to hold the axle steady, pushing or pulling on one end in the opposite direction.

Fortunately, my neighbor Ernie was able to help on this front - after beating on the locking plate a bit more (which I don't know if it helped or not), he went to town on the nut while I grabbed one end of the axle and pulled, and pow the nut finally released!

We had positioned a floor jack beneath the center of the axle body ahead of time to prevent the axle from dropping via gravity. After letting the jack down, it took a bit of wiggling to get the axle mount to drop out of the body, but in time, the axle was free and clear.

The axle will need some TLC - the differential is out of alignment, I know that for sure, and the whole assembly is just filthy nasty. Plus, the rubber boot on the passenger side gave way just after the car was brought out to Colorado, so I think I'll be taking the whole axle apart (or at least, most of it) and giving it a good rehab while the body is out getting its own attention.

Rear shocks/springs removal

Next up is getting the rear axle prepped for removal. First task on that front is getting the shocks and springs off, and the torsion arms detached.

The shocks are held on at the tops by a connector that is accessed in the corners of the trunk compartment...

...and at the bottom by four small bolts/nuts attaching the shock to the torsion arm.

The top nuts in the trunk detach easily enough, but the smaller nuts on the bottoms are more difficult, as it's tough to get a good look at them; it's more of a go-by-touch sort of job. Plus, some of these small bolts snap off.

Once everything is disconnected, the shocks drop through to the garage floor. As these are old shocks, they don't really compress and then rebound, but rather reduce the rate of compression/expansion of the springs. Meaning, the shock itself can just be compressed down and it'll stay in that position, making it possible to reduce the height enough that it can be angled out and removed. (Sadly, I did not discover this with the first shock, and spent some useless time jacking up the rear of the car an extra distance to make room. Grr.)

Once the shocks are out, it's time to disconnect the torsion arms, to allow for removal of the springs. First task is to put a floor jack up under the torsion arm, with a small block of wood as a buffer, to prevent anything bad happening should the spring, under compression, suddenly have that tension released.

 The torsion bars are held on at the front ends by castle nuts with cotter pins pushed through. I had wrestled the cotter pins out prior (which took a fair bit of time and effort, meh) so I was able to get right on the castle nuts. My handy breaker bar with the right socket made fairly quick work of these.

Once the castle nuts are off, it takes a few pops with a rubber mallet to properly loosen the cups on that end, and the torsion bar comes free. Then it's time to drop the floor jack, sloooowly, so the spring can decompress. As it turns out, there's not so much compression in there - it almost seems like the floor jack was unnecessary. But, better safe than sorry.

Now the springs and the top and bottom plates can be removed.