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MG MGB Technical - Pulling the engine without the gearbox

I have to take the 3 main engine out of my ´63 roadster to put a new ring gear on the flywheel. Last time I had the engine out I also overhauled the gearbox, but this time I would like to leave it in the car to save some work.

Are there any problems connected with this? I have an engine crane, hoist or whatever you call it, an engine tilter and the little plastic tool used to align the clutch.

Tore
Tore

Hello Tore,

No problem at all to do so. The only difficulty is to fit engine and transmission together with trans. in car, as you do not see easily the proper aligment.

Cheers,
Jean G.
Jean Guy Catford

Having done this a few times, I suggest that you put a floor or trolley jack under the bell housing portion of the transmission and use some long bolts that you can put in (and remove) from the front side of the engine to go through the bell housing to help align the engine/trans when reinstalling. Additionally, I have taken a file and broken the sharp edge (chamfer) of the trans input shaft so it goes into the pilot bushing more easily.

Wayne
Wayne Pearson

My 2 cents: Pull em both together. Just one misalined bell bolt can hold you up hours and make a mess while you try getting an eyeball beween top of bell and firewall.
It is a 2.5-4 hour job, tying the hood way back open to the steering wheel, to remove the eng/trans, ASSUMING you have an angle bar top of the picker chain to roll the 2 assemblies, together up and out the engine compartment. It can be done w/o the angle bar, but gosh why elect to make it a lousy fight to the death, ol job, when the extra $15 rental keeps a smile on your face? All this in and out by the way is a one man job!
Back in is about 3-5 hours depending on your personal expertise and wether or not you rented the midget mechanic all U-Rents have in the back lunch room to install the 4 rear tail mount rubber bolts. Recommend: no matter what, replace ALL the 4 motor mounts no matter what the condition. It is a 15 minute snap now or a $300 bill later. Happy wrenching. Vem
vem myers

Never a problem doing just the engine.

Easy to put back in - scissor jack under the trans to raise it right up against the tunnel, then simply eyeball the rear engine plate and trans case as you put them in to get them parallel in both vertical and horizontal planes and in she pops, as long as you have the clutch disc centred.

I've found that a helper works best to wiggle the engine back and forth or put weight on whichever end needs to go downward, unless you have a fancy hoist that allows such changes in attitude, but I've done it myself many times.

Once the input shaft goes through the clutch, just pull the engine back and forth until the bolts that hold it to the tans go in - hint - put them ALL in loosely (including the starter motor) before tightening them up, as it is possibel to get minor misalignment that would require you to loosen them off again to get the final bolts through.
Bill Spohn

only done it once. jacked gearbox tight up against tunnel,3 hrs trying to get it aligned. useless.dropped box,got it as level as i could, got engine strap as level as i could and it went in straight away 5 mins. dont know if it was luck but it worked for me.

bob
1970 bgt


Bob Taylor

Thanks everybody. I will give it a try.

Tore
Tore

Good man Bob, I did mine with string, sorry rope, as well. Don't need any fancy levelers if you know your knots.

David


D Balkwill

Tore
Never had a problem getting the engine back in on it's own--- Take your time and make sure that clutch plate is centred up nicely. If you are using the plastic jigger to line it up it needs to end up so you can slide the tool in and out easily with the pressure plate tightened up-- if you can't slide it easily it means the clutch plate isn't centred properly --Try again until it slides nicely. When you offer the engine up to the bellhousing I use two longish Philips head (starhead) scredrivers through the mounting plate into the bellhousing to help line it up and in it pops every time
When you fit your bellhousing bolt leave them loose til you get them all in and then tighten them that way you can move the engine round a bit to line all the holes up easily. Have fun Willy
Don't forget to put a jack under the bellhousing----
WilliamRevit

I did engine only last week and after spending half an hour trying to force the two togther caveman style, I had a cup of tea and remembered the trick to it. All of the above, plus turning the crank nut whilst heaving at the block; job done in thirty seconds. Good luck.
Steve

If your clutch components are lined up (noted you have the alignment tool) and you (1) suspend the engine properly on the hoist so that it is close to in line with the transmission shaft and balanced enough on the hoist to tilt it a little and (2) use a simple jack to raise the transmission to move the transmission up to match alignment (the engine angle is not correct to the transmission when installing because you have to clear the front crossmember first), you should have no problems. I've done this many times with engine only and never had a problem. The clutch alignment is what usually causes problems and sounds like you've already thought about that. Once the engine and transmission are properly aligned, the engine will slide almost completely into place with a gap of less than a half inch so the standard bolts and nuts will make up from there.
Rick Penland

Tore
One little thing to do--Try your clutch plate on the input shaft before fitting it up just to be sure you've been supplied the correct one Willy
WilliamRevit TasmaniaAustralia

The best alignment tool is an old input shaft. They are more precise than the plastic tools (which also work)
When sliding the engine onto the trans, have the trans in gear and use a 1 5/16 socket and bar on the crank bolt to slightly rotate the crank until the input shaft slips into place. If the trans is in neutral you can spend a lot of frustrating time trying to mate them.

Rich
Rich McKIe

This thread was discussed between 17/06/2009 and 20/06/2009

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