Pulling the Engine, Part Two

Part of getting this blog underway is learning how to add video clips. You need to upload the videos to YouTube and then publish a link in the blog. My wife, Kathaleen, is the videographer for this project. She's shooting the video and some stills and uploading the clip to YouTube. Then it amazingly simple. Click on share, click on embed and then paste the link in your blog.
earlier, I posted a couple of stills about pulling the engine but here's a video of the same, staring Matt, my son, working the hoist, my friend Tony Trentini on the left side of the car, and your's truly on the right side of the car.



Tony showed up a bit after 8 a.m. on Father's Day and by 9, the deal was done. I don't really have a good excuse about why it's taken two years to get to this point. There was all this stuff in the way in my garage. I was recovering from foot surgery. I didn't have an engine hoist. Well, those last two are pretty good excuses but nevertheless, two years from arrival, the engine is out!

The engine and transmission are out, to be more correct. The two are connected in the engine bay and it took a bit of manipulating to clear the oil pan over a steering tie rod and the gear shift stalk under the battery compartment/firewall opening. As you saw at the end of the video, you just can't leave the engine hanging from the hoist for ever. It just takes up to much room. But just how to store the engine and the transmission so they are out of the way, won't fall over and could be moved if in the way?

One of the things I use for a source of inspiration and ideas are the numerous car shows on TV. Now, nobody's rebuilding a TR3 but there are lots of guys working on cars. Dennis Gage has a show called My Classic Car, http://www.myclassiccar.com/ and he must be buddies with Jay Leno because he's all the time going by Leno's Garage and seeing all manner of automotive machinery. In a recent episode, they went into Jay's engine room and there are engines and transmissions resting on little furniture dollies. That's a great idea. I can get those at Harbor Freight for about $15. With furniture dollies in hand, I proceed to separate the engine and transmission. I was sorry to discover that not all the bolts joining the two were not there and one was broken off. I put one dolly under the engine and one under the transmission with a few blocks to make both at the same height. Wouldn't want to bend anything.

Gentle force separates the transmission from the engine 

Engine number CT32086 - Yes, its a TR4 engine!

The transmission secured to the dolly

The clutch housing

 It feels good to have this big step completed. Next big step is to remove the body.

P.S.  Here's what the engine looked like when I first saw it.

On to the next post.