351C 4V / C6 auto trans removal advice needed

[baz70]

You may want to add up the heights of everything that you'll be picking up with the engine crane- it looks like you may be real close on being able to get the engine high enough to clear the inner fender before your crane hits the door. Maybe you could close the garage door or lower the car.

Just thinking out loud as it would be my luck that I would get the engine part of the way out and then realize that it won't clear things or the crane stroke is too short or something like that...

ha, we think alike. It's been playing on my mind all week. This weekend is likely judgment day, so will go one of three ways. engine out. engine and trans out. Something gets stuck and nothing gets out

i was planning on closing the garage door and lifting from the fender side. It is very tight in terms of the height as there is a beam above with a strip light. i have measured. It would be a risk to take out both engine and trans....

 

[baz70]

You can pull the front wheels off and sit on drums or put something under the disc or spindle. If you have disc brakes be careful with the dust shields they stick down farther.

I worked on my old 69 ford van in old garage had to put 4 bare wheels on it to get through the door.

I was also thinking of removing the front suspension, sway bar and hubs completely and putting some lowered axle stands to give more height and reach to the fenders for engine lift....

 

[Jeff73Mach1]

If you try to lift the engine over the side, it will be impossible to pull the transmission and engine as a unit as you will be pulling perpendicular to the transmissions position and there is not room to turn the unit. It will also be hard to lift high enough. Pull from the front. Your idea is not going to work without major headaches

 

[73pony]

I removed the front tires and put the front on blocks to get it as low as possible and then raised the read up in the air to angle it even further. +1 on pulling from front and not side.

 

[baz70]

ok folks. Decision has been made. I will take out the engine first, and then transmission. I can rejoin them and install later when everything painted. Question - to separate engine from transmission is it just undoing the bolts on the housing ? anything else i should be aware of ? thanks again for the advice. I'm listening.

 

[turtle5353]

Starter bolts and torque converter nuts. You will have to rotate the engine and take one nut off at a time through the access hole at bottom front of trans. There are 4 nuts holding it on. Torque converter should stay in the trans or you will have a huge mess of fluid.

 

[Fabrice]

Before loose the engine bolts, you have to remove the inspection plate of the trans underneath, then remove the nuts on the flywheel holding the converter.

The start motor and its bolts, the engine ground(s) straps and I would disconnect the trans cool lines if they have been distorted/could be in the way of the motor mounts when you'd lift. I would also bellow inspection plate, support the trans casing. just enough so it doesn't try to point down and add weight while you try pull/separate the engine.

As you are limited in height, I would do this in two steps. Using first bits longer arm/chains, to allow more play during the separation/engine mount "axle" removal, then once you have freed a tad of space between trans and engine, low the engine again and change for the shortest arm/chains length.

Good luck!

 

[baz70]

Starter bolts and torque converter nuts.  You will have to rotate the engine and take one nut off at a time through the access hole at bottom front of trans.  There are 4 nuts holding it on. Torque converter should stay in the trans or you will have a huge mess of fluid.

ok, i couldn't picture this so looked up and found a vid on youtube showing the access point at front of trans. I have already removed the starter so will go down this route... thanks !

 

[baz70]

Before loose the engine bolts, you have to remove the inspection plate of the trans underneath, then remove the nuts on the flywheel holding the converter.

The start motor and its bolts, the engine ground(s) straps and I would disconnect the trans cool lines if they have been distorted/could be in the way of the motor mounts when you'd lift. I would also  bellow inspection plate, support the trans casing. just enough so it doesn't try to point down and add weight while you try pull/separate the engine.

As you are limited in height, I would do this in two steps. Using first bits longer arm/chains, to allow more play during the separation/engine mount "axle" removal, then once you have freed a tad of space between trans and engine, low the engine again and change for the shortest arm/chains length.

Good luck!

thanks, some good pointers there. will take note of them all.

 

[baz70]

Well, the engine was finally extracted with little pain today, bit of moving around in the garage but all good and executed to plan. Thanks to everyone who gave me advice, this is a great forum...

for some reason i can't upload pics, maybe exceeded limit, will have another go later.... tomorrow I'll take out the trans and then I will start on the engine bay teardown.

 

[baz70]

saw this writing on the trans. Does that mean its been rebuilt ? any ideas ?

 

[baz70]

Pulled the transmission today. Was going well until the rear tipped downwards and a hell of a lot of trans fluid came out. lots of cleaning to do afterwards.

This is becoming a build thread now so i will ponder creating a new thread in the right section.

I plan to continue with an engine and under car complete restoration (phase 1) with a body strip and paint at a later date....

goal is to continue with engine strip (power steering units, brake booster and brake lines. Continuing backwards with removal of brake lines and drive shaft and gas tank and fuel lines. I will leave diff for this time. Then once underside freed up, remove all underseal and clean, repaint with U-Pol raptor, strip engine bay back to bare metal and repaint.

And then refit everything - restored or replacement parts. Getting lots of good info from the build threads, particularly turtle's builds I hope i can get this done by June time so i can drive it this summer but will be a stretch. I have 10 days in March as vacation and i plan to get a lot done then.

One question - when i pulled trans out from driveshaft i didn't read any instructions on the correct way to do this. I hope i did it correctly. How does the driveshaft connect to trans ? is there a seal ? this is probably what has caused the historic trans leak on the underside which looks like it has splayed out from trans.... dark stain which i will remove with underside cleanup.



Clean up garage floor time !

 

[tony-muscle]

There is a seal on the rear of the transmission that seals against the yoke. This yoke connects to the driveshaft by the u-joints. Once you removed the yoke the oil will get out as soon as you tip it as you found out. In my case, even though I tried to plugged it, it made a little mess in my garage.

 

[midlife]

A good tip if you plan on pulling the tranny a few more times in the future: get a spare yoke. Pull the yoke and drivetrain out of the transmission before you remove the tranny and put in the spare yoke. Use baling wire to keep it in place so fluid won't leak.

 

[Bill73Ragtop]

Qt size freezer bag with several wraps of duct tape (any tape really) around tail-shaft usually keeps trans fluid collected.