User 4221

Make sure you have all the electrical connections disconnected and you lower the engine and trans at the same rate. I say this because you can get your oil vent lines pinched between the cross brace and airbox.

500

Thank you Ed and Scott... Good advice!

One part of the operation I am still a little fuzzy on is the shifter shaft on the nose of the 915. As it protrudes into the central tunnel, it seems it is necessary for the motor to be tilted down at the back (from what I read).

I was planning to use a seperate floor jack to position the nose of the transaxle as necessary. Is the idea to lower the motor at the back, keep the front of tilted up (so the shaft does not bind) and then slightly pull the whole motor/transaxle unit back so that the shaft clears the tunnel, and then continue with lowering the whole unit?

User 4221

Need to defer to Ed or Rusnak..... I've not done a 915 drop.

Ed Hughes

You're ok with balance under the engine case, even with the trans mounted on the motor. What you will do is lower a little bit-then pull back a little bit, repeat. In fairly short order you'll have the shaft free of the tunnel. At that point you'll be able to work in larger increments of lowering. You don't want to lower a bunch with it in the tunnel, that's where the angle of the dangle will damage the shaft, potentially.

500

Ah, thanks! That sounds quite do-able!

500

Things went faster than expected…

Dropping the motor was very easy ultimately. It was one of those jobs where everything worked out perfectly. Just as Ed said, it was a matter of drop a slight amount and then pull the motor back and so on. Although I did use an additional jack at the nose of the transmission, I don’t think it was necessary, as there is quite a bit of clearance around the selector shaft. Doesn’t hurt though. (Of course, putting the car into 1st, 3rd or 5th gear helps as it pushes the selector shaft in all the way.)

The “trick” is simply to move very slowly and check all areas repeatedly.

Next step will be to get the engine out from under the car. This will be accomplished by first raising the car higher on the jack stands, and then lowering the front onto its wheels to elevate the car’s bum…

I had debated about trying to do the fuel lines etc. with the motor in place, but as it is, I think dropping the motor was a much better option.

redridge

how high do you need the bumpers to go for the engine pull out clearance?

500

I don’t know the precise answer yet. The rear has to come up at least another 12 inches or so…

My platform that the motor is resting on is quite high too, which exacerbates the situation. However, I am not worried about getting the necessary clearance at all. My jack stands have a lot of upwards adjustment to go, and coupled with the increase in clearance I will also get by lowering the front of the car down onto its wheels will give me more than I need.

Based on the approximate horizontal dimensions between the torsion tube (where I have the jack stands) and the front axle centerline and rear extremity of the body work, I estimate that for every 1 inch I lower the front of the car, I will get 0.7 inches of additional rear clearance. I will update my actual measurements when I get to that point, which will be soon…

Ed Hughes

IIRC, I went with 39" of clearance as my minimum. This may've been 25" or so to the bottom of the t-bar tubes. This is totally doable, even with the bumper in place, provided one has large jackstands for the rear, and drop the front wheels to the ground.

rusnak

That engine platform is high. If I was helping, I would suggest 6 ton jackstands in the rear for height and stability. It's easy if you use blocks of wood and the lollipop to go side-t-side, raising the car about half a foot at a time. That left wall is really close though.

To re-install the engine and tranny, you want the car at a level, horizontal height that is within reach of the engine jack. Level is important so that the mount bolts can be threaded right in finger tight before using the socket wrench.

You can get additional rear valence height by lowering the front of the car back onto the ground. In your case, you might have to remove the rear valence. I've done a few engine drops on the 3.2s and SCs, and it get easier each time. I have it down to a few hours once the oil is drained.

IMO, using the second jack to protect the shifter shaft is smart and necessary.


Edit: Oh nevermind, I see you removed the entire rear bumper. It'll be a piece of cake then.

User 4221

I used an engine hoist to lift the engine off the jack and roll furniture dollies under the engine trans.
This dropped the assembly to about 4" off the floor and made for easy rolling.

I used some $20 furniture dollies from Harbor Freight.

rusnak

This is the stuff I assembled to do the engine drop. I don't usually remove the rear bumper at all.

Ed Hughes

I've never removed the bumper-just get that *** in the air!

rusnak

^ I concur. I would rather have at least 6' of space on each side of the car. I left my 911 outside for two months during my process, due to too much crap in the garage.

500

6’ of space on both sides would be nice, but it is not in the cards for me. Living in Canada, plus my SLOW rate of progress would also make doing this in the driveway impractical for me.

I really like your jack for the engine platform, Rusnak. It is pretty low profile, and wide in stance so it had a lot of the stability that made me choose the ATV jack, but with a lower collapsed height. My platform is sturdy, but I probably could have made it 1.75 to 2” lower in height, but that is about all. As it was, I just went with the materials I had on hand.

Last night I put the front wheels on the car and lowered the front and progressively raised the rear. I am at the full height of my taller Michelin jack stands and am soooo close. It is just the top of the heater blower motor that will not clear now. So, I would either have to put my current jack stands on sill plates or get taller jack stands to go higher. However, I am not going to bother as it will be easy to just pull the heater blower before rolling the motor out.

I have to take a moment to get myself organized now before I start tearing everything apart though.