Hi
I'v got this '83 le with a blown engine and
the engine is on order, I borrowed a lift and now I'm wondering if the tranny should be pulled or is it easier to leave it in the car to change out the engine. The clutch will be replaced as well. Help! It seems like alot of extra work to pull the tranny, is it?
One more question, at the rear of the engine it looks like the lifting gizmo there is bolted to both the engine and tranny, does that sound right? If it is then how do you pull just the engine?
Thanks, Should be knee deep into it by next week!
Steve

 

Either way is fine but I usually leave the tranny in the car. The only advantage in taking em both out is that it makes it easier to get the input shaft lined up with the clutch when bolting em back together. As for the "lifting gizmo" you might have to unbolt it and reinstall it with a shorter bolt. I think that's what I did.

 

Pull them both out at once, it makes it WAY easier.

 

Well it's kinda tricky....

If you pull *with* the trans, you need to remove the shifter, the radiator, the top panel in front of the radiator (between rad and header panel), and it's a total PITA to get the oil pan to clear the front crossmember. Also you'd better have a looooong arm on your cherrypicker because I messed up my bumper trying to get it far back enough.

When I yank the engine back out of WT, I'm leaving the trans in. We were looking at it, and it LOOKS like you don't have to pull the radiator or even the hood if you lift it out from the side. Of course the rad and oil cooler are coming out first anyway, gotta protect 'em "just in case".

 

Pulled a 12a with the trans on it and droped the 13b in with its trans already on... It cam out pretty easy if you remove all that stuff just listed..

 

I removed the engine and trans together as a unit by my self but if you do this I would get at least another person to help you out because it was a little harry doing it by my self. I used the tab your talking about at the rear of the engine worked great. You just have to watch the oil pan to make sure it doesn't scrape the pannel inbetween the headlights (unless you don't care of course).

As you can see by the pic there is a little more weight twards the front when using that tab on the engine. Just have someone pull down on the tail shaft while removing it so it comes out at a angle.

I woulden't remove it any other way.

And yeah you do have to remove the shifter, rad, and rad pannel to do it this way.

Good luck

https://www.rx7club.com/vforums/atta...&postid=280745

 

You don't need to pull the radiator if you leave them together. I pulled AND put in an engine with the trasmission intact, and the radiator stayed put. Maybe take off the fan shroud and fan (mine didn't have it on it on the race car). Pulling the engine from the transmission is a few more bolts, as well as trying to pull them apart while the thing is in the car. Pulling the trans requires two bolts for the trans mounts, and messing with the shifter.

It'll be easier to line the clutch up to the transmission with them both out too, as well as unbolt/bolt them apart/together.

Either way, just make SURE that you have an engine lift, and a chain that is able to tilt the engine, otherwise you're in for a lot of pain and trouble.

 

Ok my experence with removing the engine differs from job to job. IF you are just replacing the engine, just support the tranny, and when putting it in don't put the front mount on the front cover till you get it connected to the tranny makes it quick. If you have a hoist you can connect to the roof above the car, then you don't have to even take the hood off! I took the tranny out below and raised out the engine. and assembled it with the engine installed and raising the tranny from below worked quickest for me.

 

I have done this many times and never once pulled the tranny out. I don't see any reason why you would, Just a bunch of extra work to avoid lining up the input shaft to the clutch assymbly. It' quit easy to line the tranny and motor up once you get the hang of it.
You don't have to take the radiator out BUT you only have a couple of inches between the front of the motor and the radiator. If you make a small mistake the radiator is going to lose that battle. The radiator will take you less than 5 minutes to remove. Thats with a break. You can also do it with out taking the hood off. But it is SO much easier without the hood in the way. How long does it take to take those four bolts out of the hood any way? 1-2 minutes. I know that 20 LB hood can be a pain in the *** to remove .


Good luck,
Mike

 

Good point on the rad... it only takes 5 minutes to pull... and if you have a pre-83 car, what ya do is remove the shroud, unbolt both oil cooler lines from the engine, remove the lower hose and heater hose from the radiator and the upper hose from the engine, then unbolt the radiator from the core support. That way the radiator, oil cooler, and lines can come out as one big messy assembly. You ARE going to have the oil cooler professionally cleaned out, right? (Well, neither did I... but I kept my oil religiously clean and the engine coming out wasn't blown, just consumed lots of oil and had stock ports) It's a serious pain to try to remove either the radiator or the oil cooler separately, unless you have two thumbs on each hand and four joints in each finger!

I don't see how I could have pulled the engine and tranny together without first removing the radiator... I had big time interference. I even had to (carefully!) pull the A/C hoses as far forward as possible so I could move the condenser low enough for it all to clear. Maybe the cherrypicker I was using couldn't lift it high enough?

 

Thanks for all the tips. I'm going to pull them out together, and I have one of those engine tilting rigs to manouver it with. For me I think it will be easier that way.
Thanks again!