So, I am slowly planning on getting my motor dropped sometime soon. I have picked up a wooden floor dolly from Harbor Freight and have access to 2 floor jacks plus some jackstands as needed. I have been reading over the engine drop procedure over on the bird site:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/9...engine_drop.htm

When dropping the motor, the article describes that as you unbolt the motor it will drop about 1/2" on to your awaiting wooden dolly. So when putting the motor back in, how does one account for getting the motor lifted back up that 1/2"? Just muscle it in? Tiny floor jack?

Note: I am your weekend warrior, kick the wife's car out of the garage, have hardly enough tools, and first time motor dropper.

I did mine myself with a bad heart, seven stents, and an ICD!


Plan it out, and have the balance point right. You should do fine. I think most of us work alone. Dont go under anything without redundant supports.

When I yell for my wife she thinks something has dropped on me but I just want a wrench!

John
Good Luck it's a fun project......

The way I do it while the engine is in the car you place a floor jack under the engine cross bar to hold it in place. One at a time replace the two large bolts that go between the cross bar and body with a much longer threaded rod (1/2" or 5/8" stock cut down to like 10" in length With two nuts locked together on the top side and one nut below the crossbar) Once this is done get your floor jack under the tranny. I use a nice scissors jack. instead. Wind each of the nuts on the crossbar down a little one at a time, then the jack under the tranny until the entire assemble is on the dolly. A couple of 2 x 4s to steady it all on the dolly. Once the engine is on the dolly you will need to then raise the car up on jack stands high enough to roll out engine and trans.

what i do is put the ass end of the the car up as high as it will go. then i lay my carpet dolly over the floor jack. then roll the 2 under the car toward the the rear of the engine/ front of the trans. then jack the jack up to where the puck of the jack is on the back of the engine. the center of gravity is pretty close there. once the puck of the jack touches the engine i give it a little more. just a little pressure....

then remove engine and trans mount bolts and slowly lower the jack right onto the dolly. as your bringing it down you need to move the dolly around till you hit the sweet spot. once the engine is on the dolly,pull the jack out and then pull the dolly with the engine and trans combo. pretty easy actually. reverse the order when you installl.

slide the combo under the car, then slide the jack under the engine, jack the engine into place.

Best way I did it was to put a 2x4 between the dolly and the front engine bar, roll the engine under the car, lower the back end of the car (without rear wheels) and bolt it up.

Doesn't work as well if you don't raise the front of the engine up with the wood block as the front mounts don't touch before the rear brake shields hit the ground (and you can't lower the car any longer).

This is my method of choice. It only takes one jack, is very safe, and you don't have to "balance" anything. Because you are slowly lowering it in a very controlled fashion, you can easily manage the injectors hitting and you will notice if anything is still connected. I don't understand why Andy and I are apparently the only two who do it this way.

Sounds like a good way but you would have to use 3/8" threaded stock not 5/8 or 1/2 as the original bolts are 10mm and the larger stock will not fit.
Bruce

Must be pretty interesting putting a 1/2"-5-8" piece of threaded rod through a 10mm (about 3/8") hole ...........................

The Cap'n

DOH!

Yep, 3/8". Mine are 19" long. I must have cut down 24" to fit the first time I had the car up on stands and did a drop, otherwise I am not sure how I came up with that length.
Click to view attachment

I need to drop my engine myself for the 1st time soon too.

Would a HF jack table (with the handle down) work so there won't be any balancing issues with the engine/transmission assembly?

i just put engine and trans in for the first tme.i used 2 jacks to lift car up high enough to get engine underneath.engine was on harbor freight motorcycle jack,trans was supported with a piece of wood.i raised engine enougt to get bolts almost into engine bar,then lowered body down,watching that everything fit and didnt get snagged.bolted engine and trans.

I looked at those jack tables from HF but opted for the $10 wooden dolly. The hydraulic table would work well however as the handle/bar comes off.


Thanks to all for the replies. I'm hoping to perform this drop sometime in the next month.

Might I suggest, you label everything you disconnect with reassembly in mind.

I will take this into consideration.

Along with the movers dolly, i made up a wood cradle that goes from the front mount bar back to the end of the tranny (see photos). This sits atop the dolly. then I slipped my floor jack under the dolly and positioned it under the balance point to the motor/tranny assay.
Took a few tries to get the balance point right, but once there I kept most weight on the jack while loosening the motor mounts. once clear of the mounts, lowered all the way till the cradle sat on the dolly. Rolled the unit out from under the car, then lifted the ass end and slipped the jack out from under. Now had the unit on a rolling cart.Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Label and take some pictures.
This will help with reassembly and orientation.

I'm a newbie at engine drops but when I put the engine and trans back into the car, all the connections were pretty obvious. Mark the shift rod connection and you should be able to connect it all up without any fine tuning.

I've done it twice, and I am dopey.

..... the final "release" when the final threads unhook is more tame than you would think. Just lower the car as far onto the dolly as you can..... it will make sense when you are doing it.

I recall the "reach" under to undo the motor mounts was the trickiest the first time I did it..... when it finally dropped safely onto the dolly, I remember thinking "whoe! good thing no body parts were in the way.... didn't expect that just then!".

But again, it all made more sense while I was dropping the engine than when I read the Pelican article 14 times.

Cheers!

...... let me know if you want some company when you are ready to do the drop. You can get everything unhooked and labeled.

I can help with the actual drop...... I've done it a couple of times.

Cheers!

ps - I live in the north bay. Easy drive for me

Hi,
exactly how high would the car need to be in order to clear the engine and trans when removing?

a point from which to measure would be appreciated.

I was thinking of doing it as I found on the net, where the person used three,
2/4's per layer laid horizontal 1" gap between the three pieces, and screwed together;
which created a pillar of wood to support the four points.
12 inch length 2/4's. pillar would be 12 1/2" by 12" by ?

just need to have a starting point as to how "high" I need to go, in order to
determine how many 2/4's to buy.

then with the car in its "raised position" I would "drop" the engine/trans and then
be able to work on the body in place as well the engine off to the side.

thanks

randal