Engine and Transmission Removal

So this past weekend my dad and I pulled the engine and transmission from the bus.

We used the instructions from Ratwell's
http://www.ratwell.com/technical/EngineRemoval.html

It went really well. I took a ton of pictures and put them up on my Flickr site. Here's the link:
View Slideshow

I ended up buying an ATV jack from HF for $90. It happened to be the same one Ratwell used when pulling his engine so I figured it must be okay for at least that.

My dad and I built a Piano dolly type thing from 1x4 oak and 6" casters from HF. The dimensions were 27.5" square. Supports the engine and transmission. There's not really access from the bottom for the engine, but it's easy to move around and I can always jack it up if I need to. The 6" castors and the width between them allow the Jack to slide under and then set the engine down on top and be slid out.

Here's a pic of the Jack with the Dolly:

Basically, I did the following:

• Emergency Brake on.
  
• Removed the Rear Bumper
  
• Disconnected the Battery
  
• Jacked up the Car so I could get under it.
  
• Disconnected the fuel filter and put a blue clamp on it
  
• Filled gas cans until it was empty.
  
• Drained the fuel filter and hoses into engine.
  
• Disconnected the Transmission Coupler
  
• Disconected the Heater Box Wires
  
• Disconnected and threw away the Heater Tubes (Asbestos)
  
• Labeled and Disconnected the Transmission Ground Cable
  
• Labeled and Disconnected everything from the starter cellenoid
  
• Labeled and Pulled the multi plugs form the firewall and rested on top of the engine.
  
• Disconnected the blower and removed it
  
• Disconnected the airbox and removed it.
  
• Labeled and disconnected the coil and removed it.
  
• Labeled and disconnected the other misc sensor wires and removed them.
  
• Disconnected the Clutch Cable and Cable mount from transmission.
  
• Removed the foam padding from around the engine.
  
• Removed the sheet metal deflectors from around the engine.
  
• Removed the sheet metal deflectors from under the engine.
  
• Put the Jack and Dolly rig under the engine.
  
• Put a smaller floor jack and 2x4 piece under the transmission.
  
• Unbolted the 4 bolts in the back of the engine
  
• Unbolted the 2 bolts in for the Transmission NoseCone.
  
• Thought it should come down now, but it didn't and then found the two bolts above the tranmission... what a pain. Very Awkward with the jacks under there.
  
• Now with Jacks under we started to lower the engine and tranmission.
• Transmission was hung up on Support so we ended up pulling the engine back as far as we could then down, then back then down and eventually out.
  
• Fuel Spill... forgot to disconnect the fuel vacuum line on the passenger side above the starter. Not much, used a pencil to plug the line.
  
• Transmission and Engine fit perfectly on dolly.
  

All in all from start to finish it prolly took us 6 hours. We had never done it before and broke for coffee and lunch in there somewhere.


Here's a picture of the engine on the Dolly:


As per usual in these busses, apparently a mouse family had lived above the transmission. One of it's spines was left for us:


After it was out, we popped the firewall out and started looking at the Gas Tank. Looks fine. Neck definitely needs to be replaced... it's all cracked. I also found a local guy that will clean the tank and reseal it for me.

I'll prolly keep taking pictures and putting them up here when I have them.

Read This Thread on the Samba where I was posting questions around what to do once the engine and transmission are out.