Day Twelve - Extraction Day

So this was the big day for me. I have never done this before. Pulling an engine seemed like a huge deal, though reading about it and watching YouTube videos of the process certainly allayed my fears. I was pretty confident I could do this. I wrote down the last few steps and got started. It was coming out today.

First thing on my list was disconnecting the clutch line from the slave cylinder. I thought I was going to get clutch fluid everywhere when I loosened the connection, so I wrapped some rags around it. The mess never materialized. I assume I'll have to bleed the clutch lines when I re-assemble anyway. Might as well replace the fluid while I'm at it. Okay, getting ahead of myself here.

Next on the list was removing the shift lever. The rubber boot was pretty torn up so I just pulled it off completely. Figure I'll replace that, too. (I keep intending to write a list of these replacement parts, but keep putting it off. Fortunately, writing this blog will help pull that information together.) With the shift lever out, I taped up the opening so crud wouldn't get in the hole. Oh, btw, I forgot to mention that I drained the transmission fluid the day before, so I knew I wasn't going to have that big of a mess when I pulled the propeller shaft. Which was the next thing.

I marked the propeller shaft where it connected to the differential so I could re-install it back the same way. Using my new impact wrench made this much easier. It slipped off without any problems and I covered the open end of the transmission with a baggy, just in case. While I was down there, I loosened the power plant frame (PPF) bolts so I can get ready to detach it when I got the engine chained up and supported. I noticed that the wiring harness along the transmission was getting in the way, so I just detached it from the PPF. There are clips and I just used some pliers to ease them out. Last thing to do at this point, while I was under the car, was to remove the cross member. Four bolts and it was out.

AC compressor moved aside

Back in the engine bay, the last thing left was to move the AC compressor out of the way. I had a few wire hangers that I re-bent and wired it out of the way. At this point, I have everything disconnected and/or out of the way so I'm ready to chain up the engine to the crane. Since I knew I was pulling the transmission along with the engine, I bought a leveler to help ease out the monstrosity. Once I got the engine chained up and supported by the hoist, I could release the transmission from the PPF. I unbolted the PPF and just pushed it aside rather than remove it completely. I actually rested the dangling PPF on a box, just to support its weight. Next, I loosened the engine mounts and started to raise the engine a bit. I don't remember if I had to or not, but I went ahead and removed the engine mounts, now that the hoist had the weight of the engine. Gave it a few shoves and it was pretty much free floating now.

On its way!

I spent some time finagling the angle of the engine with the load leveler. When it got to the point where it got a bit too much to handle myself, I had my son man the jack while I guided the engine through. By myself, it was a pain going back and forth trying to guide the engine while simultaneously jacking it up. With his help, it only took about 5 minutes and it was free.

That little post saved its ass from my clumsiness

Only ran into one snag where the coil pack was rubbing too much against the firewall. Good thing it had a little post to keep it from getting crushed. Some engineer was looking out for me.

Can't say the same for the firewall seam. Minor.

Ok, out! Now what?

Can't believe I actually got this thing out.  :)

Now I want to get this thing onto my engine stand.

Dirty transmission.

So this thingy needed to come off. My new impact wrench made short work of the bolts holding it on. It's pretty filthy on the outside. Can't say any different on the inside. Glad I don't have to take this thing apart. Just going to store it off to the side until I need it again.

Hmm, so that's what that looks like.

Since I was planning on mounting the engine from the back end here, I needed to remove the flywheel, et al. I also figured that, since I've gone this far into it, I might as well see the state of the clutch disc. This is the kind of stuff I would usually leave to the mechanic to do, but I might as well start learning how to do this myself. Knowledge is power.

Flywheel

Clutch disc. Looks pretty worn.

I take it the grooves on the clutch disc are an indicator of how worn it is. So, if I read this right, I'm well due. This one has the full 147K miles of wear as I've never touched this since I've owned the car.

I hit a snag in my plan to mount the engine on the stand. There were a couple of holes on the bell housing that had some sort of guide bushings that I couldn't remove. I didn't think I could just mount it on these bushings. It didn't seem sturdy enough. I tried mounting it on the other available holes, but two of them had to be on the oil pan. How the heck would I ever get the oil pan off and still have it on the stand? For the time being I left it this way, but I would have to figure out a different way. Unfortunately, the bell housing bolts I was going to use were too short, so I had to find some longer ones at the hardware store. So, no mounting today. I just left it sitting on some wood 4x4s and kept it chained on the hoist. Time to do some more research though.

In the meantime, with better access I removed the exhaust manifold and realized I missed a fastener when I tried to remove it earlier. No wonder the thing wouldn't come off. Doh! With the header off, I noticed a deposit of what looked like grease or something. How'd that get there? Seemed weird. Anyway, I'm done for the day. Big accomplishment for me though.

Day Eleven - Exhaust down pipe REALLY down now

Okay, I lied. I didn't really remove the down pipe. It's still attached. I tried to pull the bracket from the bell housing, but it was way too tight. Now, I'm thinking I need an impact wrench to get this sucker off. So I bought one, and a new compressor to go with it, from Harbor Freight. My little 8 gallon compressor wasn't powerful enough. I wanted to get an impact wrench for a while now, but didn't want to get it unless I was backed against the wall. This seemed like my wall. I crossed my fingers hoping I didn't buy a dud. 

I followed all the directions for setting up the compressor, adding oil, breaking it in, flushing the oil and replacing it. I wanted to make sure I followed all the directions to the letter. I want these tools to last. Everything seems to be working fine! :) Now on to the exhaust pipe.

It was difficult to get to the fasteners with the pipe in the way, so I was hoping the extensions and the impact action would loosen them. No such luck. Is this impact wrench not powerful enough or are these things hopelessly on too tight. I had to come up with another strategy. Not thinking it would work, but wanting to try all the alternatives, I tried to loosen the clamp nut attached to the bracket. 

Surprisingly, it wasn't that hard to move with a regular socket wrench. And, it wasn't a nut as I had thought. It's hard to see what's what down there with everything in the way. When you're not familiar with the pieces, you tend to think they're a certain way and it's not always true. So I finally got it off. Hmmm, I guess I didn't really need that impact wrench for this after all. Well, who can say no to more tools? It'll come in handy later on anyway.

Ha! Got you sucka!

With that accomplished, the rest of the work today was disconnecting the wiring from the start motor and whatever else I could find along the transmission. I pretty much wanted to have the engine and transmission disconnected completely.

Starter motor connections

Wiring harness along the transmission and PPF.

Almost ready to pull this off. Made a list of final details and planned on doing the deed next weekend. Kinda excited!

Day Eight - Center console and exhaust pipes

So looking over the engine removal instructions in the service manual, it says I need to remove the stick shift, et al. Seems like a reasonable starting point for the day. No real issues. The rubber boot on the shift lever looked torn up, so I think I'll need a new one. Other than that, I stopped short of pulling the shift lever because I still haven't drained the transmission yet, and didn't want to deal with any leakage. However, center console is out and access is clear.

Muffler gone, showing the locations of the 3 rubber hangers

Next on the list was removing the exhaust pipes. Instructions stated to start from the rear and move my way forward. Since I'm pulling the transmission as well, I'll need access to the drive shaft and removing the exhaust pipes will make access easier.

The biggest headache I had was the rubber hangers hold the exhaust pipes. I didn't appreciate the amount of twisting force I had to apply. I didn't want to tear them, but fortunately they are built to take it. The lack of room didn't help, but with a big screwdriver, I managed.

I'm sure they are easier to put *on*

Fortunately, I didn't strip out any of the nuts holding the pipes together. They were a little tough getting loose. Nothing a little weasel piss, a cheater bar and some brute force couldn't cure.