engine removal problems
 

im trying to remove my engine and tranny and i have all the hoses, engine mount bolts , and the cross member section on the tranny undone but it still doesn't want to come out is there anything i might have missed. it acts like its stuck to the cross member still cause i can see that the engine mounts are off but it is still lifting the whole car up when i go to raise the engine out?

Yeah, lots of shit. Shifter, wiring harness, oi cooler lines, slave cylinder, ground wire, a/c compressor, vacuum supply hose to the firewall/brake MC, starter power supply wire, all kinds of good shit.

Be more specific about what all you took off(is it a bare block and tranny, or is it fuylly equipped still with manifolds) like did you take off the driveshaft, did you pull off the wiring harness, etc. and I can help yuou more. I just pulled an engine tonight as a matter of fact...took me 2 hours :-)

Yeah, what hypntyz7 said. One other thing, your trann crossmember may be catching onto the underside of the car, snagging if you will, preventing you from pulling the engine.

I would just pull the motor off first then the tranny.

No NO no thats not the way to do it, its much harder that way. Its easier to seperate(and later attatch) the tranny and clutch parts on the floor rather than under the car above your head. Just make sure your lift is capable of the 350lb the combo weighs and pull it on out.

One possibility here... Try to imagine the bolts that go from the motor mounts into the cross member. The cross member is roughly a shallow v shape. The bolts go into the crossmember at roughly 90 degrees perpendicular to it. As you try to pull the engine out the bolts are trying to lift the car because they are actually wider apart than the holes in the crossmember are. The holes in the crossmember are actually slotted on the passenger side to allow them to have a little room to come out. This is not an easy slot to hit.

Try to place a slight amount of upward pressure on the engine with the hoist, then rock the engine back and forth and side to side. You will eventually use a combination of movement that will allow the mounting bolts to come free of the crossmember.

Also you need to completely remove the transmission mount from the tranny. This will allow a little more room for the engine/tranny assembly to move around as you try to lift it all out of the car. You will also need to have a helper hold the tail shaft of the tranny down to allow the engine to be removed from the car. If you don't there will not be enough room between the engine and the radiator mount to get it all out. The amount of downward movement is slight. I removed and installed my engine/trans together by using a piece of rope tied to the tailshaft and pulling on it from the front of the car as I lifted everything out or lowered it in.

all the hoses are off oil cooler, vacuum lines, raditor hoses, raditor removed wiring harness pulled, im going to crawl under my car today to see what the problem is

Heres the answer....
 

Im going out on a limb here, but i completely disagree with the idea that is easier to remove the engine AND transmission at once, UNLESS you are replacing the transmission too!

The problem why the engine wont come out, is that there is a collar stuck down in the crossmember where you removed the one big bolt in the tranny mount...

You have to lift this collar out and then it will move forward.

Agin though, put that transmission BACK IN unless you are replacing the transmission.

there is NO GOOD REASON to go through all that extra work of wrestling it around unless you are replacing the tranny or entire drive train.

Good idea, but the mounts are rubber, adn they flex enough that it isnt a concern 99% of the time, unless youre lifting the engine at a funky angle or something. Generally, you begin by lifting straight up about 6 inches, then come forward, lift, forward, etc.

I have never had to do this. Actually, it would be sorta hard to do this under the car, the way the 2 rubber mounts on the side of the tranny are made onto the mount, its real hard to get at those bolts. YOu have plenty of room reagrdless fo whether or not the mount is on.

This would be good, but its not required. I let my tailshaft ride the transmission tunel allt he way up to the firewall, and at that point I just move it so that it doesnt threaten the heater core outlets, and pull the engine further forward at which point it slides out and up on the firewall, then I bring it all forward more.

IM an experienced 2nd gen mechanic and I still dont understand what youre talking about, so Im sure he doesnt. Are you saying that because he took the big nut off the bottom of the transmission crossmember, that the protruding stud is now catching on something on its way out? IF its catching on the engine subframe like what I think youre trying to say, then the engine is far enough out that nothing much could be holding it in.

Otherwise, once you drop the tranny crossmember bolts, there's nothing under there to catch on for about 4 feet forward. I ALWAYS leave the crossmember on and pull it all right out.

Ive got a good reason for ya. Trying to align botht eh motor mounts PLUS the input shaft of the transmission and the dowel pins all at one time when instaling the new engine. Sounds like fun to me, Ive tried it, and it sucks major ass. Getting an engine in straight enough fo both motor mounts to sit in their holes is tough enough unless you have a pretty perfect flat surfact to work the hoist around with(Ive done swaps outdoors too). Ive seen a group of 3 guys struggle 3 hours trying to do what youre describing. If you have a decent hoist, 350lb is nothing at all to heavy to be lifting out, so you wont be wrestiling with anything. SO if you leave the tranny hanging on the car, how do you support it while trying to align it with the engine? Hell, its hard enough to align the transmission to the engine when doing a clutch, and the tranny only weighs 90lb. Youre trying to align the engine to the car AND tranny, and the engine weighs 200+lb! That's the hard way isnt it?

The other option is to drop the tranny from underneath first, then reinstall it from underneath later. This is dirty, sweaty, in-a-bind not-enough-breathing-room kinda work though to me its still preferrable to the first option above. BUt why lower and lift above your head and body, when you could do it with your legs and arms standing up?

I get the engine and tranny flat on the floor, unbolt it, rock the tailshaft with my hands and the tranny falls right off within 30 seconds. You can do the clutch work there, swap flywheel, etc. to the new engine, bolt it all back up. IF you tilt the engine forward some on the floor, the trany will slide right on usig the force of gravity, no more wrestling around with it from below.

I like to work smarter, but you guys are welcome to work however you'd like! IF you do it enough you'll get tired of lifting and ask yoursel f why youre doing it the hard way!

i did this not too long ago (3weeks) and i think the easiest way to get it out is to take the engine and tranny separate. five bolts hold them together. you have to pull away form the tranny and jerk it to get all the bolts off at once

I've changed a few engines....
 

Ive never had the problem that you speak of aligning everything.

I dont put the motor mounts on until after its on the tranny.

Look at it this way, if you had to change the morot mounts, you wouldnt pull the engine ant tranny to do it!

Its done easilly with a engine hoist.

Bolt it to the tranny, lift it up and then install the mounts.

easy as pie.

The transmission sits in a satural position for alignment and i assume that you are using an engine leveler to do thhes swaps.

Its insane to do it without one.
$30, they are cheap.

thats how you can do it without removing the transmission.

As far as the tranny cross member thing, I have never removed a RX7 transmission, so I have never taken the crossmember out.

So, okay, I dont know about that.

But as far as is being easier to remove an engine by taking out the transmission too... no way.

No way.

Its a waste of time to go through all the shifter, driveshaft, and other things just to get the engine out.

Hell, theres even two little lips on the front crossmember to lay a bar across to hold the front of the transmission up while the engine is out!!!

The factory service guide shows how to remove the engine, and it does not mention removing the transmission too.

Thats because unless you are servicing the tranny, you dont take it out.


And let me be a bit bold here and say, theres a fine line between the right and wrong way to do things.

Some of us have erased that line.

So, (at best), this work will be a bit confusing.


Sniper_X
Always Tinkering :stick:

As far as pulling/replacing the engine with or without tranny. I did two last summer. My first ever was by myself in an apartment parking lot. I left the tranny in the car. Put it back in myself, with no help. No problem took about 45 minutes with an engine hoist and an axe handle for persuasion.
My second one I had help, but it was an auto and it was much easier.
just my opinion,
hanman

Is there enough room to remove the engine and transmission bolted together? (and better yet, install them together?) Being able to install them together would make things much easier, and taking them out.
Anything special that has to be done? Can you leave the motor mounts on? I know you would remove the tranny crossmember and bolt that up from below...
Sean

did you say you removed the shifter? I forgot the shifter once and nearly killed myself and the car trying to get the motor/tranny out.

Re: I've changed a few engines....
 

Sniper X ,

what the hell are you talking about. did you read the post. he is trying to get the engine OUT. yeah when you put it in its easier to connect them IMO

Justin

There seems to be a little confusion here as to what this guy is asking. Regardless if he was removing the two as a unit or not the engine is still hanging up in the motor mounts and trying to pick the car up as it is hoisted. These have to come loose from the cross member before the engine could be separated from the tranny if he was just removing the engine by itself or if trying to remove both as a unit.

Yes, you most certainly absolutely can remove the engine and transmission as a unit. Why do so? Well for one thing it makes the installation process go a little easier in my opinion. I have performed this process several times. Removing and installing the two together negates the need to align the engine with the motor mounts, trans input shaft and bell housing dowels while it is hanging from a hoist. Those who have done this will also note the engine/trans is balanced perfectly when it is picked up by the factory mounted engine lift eyes with the trans still attached. I know there are many opinions about this, but that isn't what the guy asked. He said he WAS removing the two together and asked what was hanging up.

As far as the Mazda manual, it was written around the flat rate for shop charges, and also it assumes the user has the special tools that are recommended. Just because the manual says one thing doesn't mean there aren't other ways to do something. If that was not so we would be setting our TPS with a 100 dollar device and running compression checks with a 1,500 dollar comp. checker. We would also be throwing away the wiper switches, warning light displays, logicons and CPU's instead of figuring out ways to repair them. If the manual is inviolable show me where it mentions the throttle body mod, or running pre-mix. No, there are always other alternatives. While the manual is an invaluable tool to service a rex with it ain't burned in stone tablets.

There is always more than one way to skin a cat.

IN some people's mind its easier to remove an engine w/o the transmission, then realign it all later on. IN my mind, and some other people's, its easier to do it al ont eh floor and install it as a unit.

We'll just leave it at that, adn each of us can continue doing it their own way and ba happy.

BTW, what's the average time to pull an engine w/o tranny for you guys who do it this way? My best time to pull an engine, complete with lal manifolds, wiring, and accessories, motor mounts, tranny and all, in 1 hour 35 minutes, no help.

What about installation? So far my best time is 2 hours 15 minutes from the time the engine/tranny sat on the floor until I was cranking her over to start up.

Motor only. Easy. Keep the engine on the same plane as the transmission when reinstalling. Just personal preference. Ooops, KAMISAMA12 didn't ask for a poll. Sorry, I only did it once like that on a 82 and decided thats not the way to go. I don't think your problem can be solved from here. You need to lift the weight with the lift and then crawl under there and push, shove and budge and find out whats holding the thing from coming out. Could be something as simple as an electrical plug etc. Just exercising my fingers here. Sorry 'bout that.

Motor only. Easy. Keep the engine on the same plane as the transmission when reinstalling. Just personal preference. Ooops, KAMISAMA12 didn't ask for a poll. Sorry, I only did it once like that on a 82 and decided thats not the way to go. I don't think your problem can be solved from here. You need to lift the weight with the lift and then crawl under there and push, shove and budge and find out whats holding the thing from coming out. Could be something as simple as an electrical plug, ground strap, etc. Just exercising my fingers here. Sorry 'bout that.