Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

Has anybody here ever pulled engine/trans together from a fox car?  I'm going to be needing to pull this one off in a couple of weeks, and I was considering dropping the powertrain with the K-Member and the crossmember from the bottom as a quick means of affecting a transplant.
There's a number of things I know that will have to disconnected, but i can't be that different from dropping out of a Taurus.
Brake lines - disconnect/remove depending on routing
steering shaft
lower fuel lines
cat-back exhaust
column shift linkage
trans cooler from the radiator (leave on k-member and trans)
front springs
struts disconnect from knuckles
wiring from the shakers (and whatever few connect independently)
hoses
A/C lines at compressor

I figure I can keep the headers and the h-pipe attached to the engine and crossmember.  Has anybody done it this way or similar?

i pulled mine out the front of the car but we took the front bumper and everything off to do it

That's too much work. Pull engine and trans together. No sense in taking the k member and control arms unless you plan on replacing all that stuff anyway.

As for the front bumper...what a waste of time....the radiator support is still there, I have no idea what the hell you'd gain by removing the bumper?

It may even help to jack up the rear and block it up about 4-6 inches, but make sure it's solid, because the car will move a little. I've always pulled my engines and trans out together, both AOD and with the T5. Much easier that way. Just remember to drain the fluid out of the trans first, regardless of auto or manual, or as soon as you pull the driveshaft, there will be a big ole mess. A 1 gallon pan will hold it all.

Putting it back in is about the same. Pretty easy. Once the engine/trans is roughly in place, put a small jack under the tailhousing, and lower the engine onto the mounts. Then jack up the tail, put the crossmember in, lower the trans onto the trans mount. Bolt it all down. Piece of cake...why make the job longer by removing irrelevant pieces? edest thing I ever heard of...

Every time I have pulled or put both in or out I have done it together. Left bumper on the car and everything. Removed radiator and hood. I does make a difference how long your cherry picker is tho.

Most simple is to have a lift and drop K member motor and trans all at once.

Ive always dropped the exhaust (h-pipe) and left the headers bolted to the car too.

I remove the upper intake, headers, accessories, all the bigger stuff stays on. If you've got to take it off, as if you're rebuilding the engine or such, it's a lot easier to take those off on the stand with an air ratchet than in the car.
I don't know about you guys, but bending over a car for 2 hours taking off a bunch of stuff that isn't in the way in the first place makes my back hurt bad enough that I want to abuse percocet again.

Do it quick, do it dirty...there's time to play piddily winks with it later when it's out.

That's what I was thinking, drop it out and treat it like a module.  The K-member isn't swapping over, but I've got a powertrain table and a hoist, AND a 2-ton power chain-fall.  I'd drop the powerteam and front suspension on the table, roll over to the 2-ton power chain fall, and lift it off the table leaving the K in place, then roll back to the donor and reinstall the complete K, reattach the steering, springs, and struts and roll her out, then drive in the recipient, repeat, except I'd pull the powerteam from the recipient K and replace it with the transplant, reinstall.  I think I could complete the powertrain swap in a day.  On the second day, swap the rear, the cat-back, and the shaft as well as the fuel pump.  Phase 1 complete.  As for fluid from the tailshaft seal, that's not a problem.  We have a complete set of plugs for that.

Seems like a lot of extraneous work to me, but you're the one with the automotive certs...not me.

On cars like Taurus/Sables and the GM stuff (Impala/Malibu/Monte/etc) where it's a have-to, then yes...but to merely take an a whole front suspension apart to take the powertrain out, and then put said suspension back in to move the car out again is silly.
It's just as easy, if not easier to pull engine and trans, leave the suspension untouched, and also still be ahead, time wise. You still have to unfasten or disconnect everything that you would to remove the engine and trans, and nothing suspension-wise would be touched.
I'd bet this week's paycheck I could get mine out faster using my method than you could the way you described. I'm not at all trying to start a forum argument, but let's see...you have 4 large k member bolts. The strut bolts. The sway bar needs disconnected at either the frame or the control arms. The steering shaft will need to be undone. Tires removed. Brake calipers disconnected. That's another thing. Brakes will need bled if you plan on driving the car again later. It will need aligned. You'll probably need new balljoints, as getting old balljoints back together is a huge PITA.
And that's on top of the wiring, fuel connectors, and radiator hoses that will be necessary no matter how you do it.
There's no way in hell you'll come out ahead, time-wise or labor-wise.

Then you still have to unmount the engine. The trans will flopping around, even more so if you have a broken engine mount. (likely).

See my point? Just trying top save you hours of time and unneeded and unnecessary work.

But I would take your bumper off! :flip:

Edit:
Last time I took my engine/trans out, I had it on the ground in less than an hour. Of course, the night before, I had my hoist set up in front of the car, hood was off, fluids drained, and radiator and fan were out/off. I'll spot ya a half hour, and still beat your time. You can ask for advice, then throw it out and do it the hardest way. Your boss must have a big heart, or a big bank account...I couldn't afford to pay a wrench to do things the long way..lol

Oh yeah...that was without air tools...do it like that on those K member bolts. ;)

I had the motor out of my car in 45 minutes, and the new one back in about half an hr simple and straight forward with longtubes and a py cherry picker. To each their own

Wow, dude.  I didn't ask how to do it, I asked if anybody HAD done it that way.  And my boss isn't paying me to do anything, it's MY car.  He's being gracious enough to let me use the shop.  The balljoints don't have to come apart, and nothing is going to be "flopping" anywhere when a powertrain table is involved.  It's coming out the same way it went in at the factory.  This morning I talked with one of our bodyshop guys about it, he says that's how he used to do it when he had to do structural work on Fox and SN-95 cars that required the engine to be out.  I don't even have to pull the H-pipe, just uncouple it from the mid pipes.  I don't have to pull my radiator, I don't have to pull any accessories, I just unhook and unbolt then drop the powertrain table.  The only thing that has to be taken out first is the front springs, and I might have to half disassemble the shift linkage.  It's 1 bolt to disconnect the steering shaft.  Even if I do have to open the brake lines, I can set the brake flush machine up to bleed them for me while I'm doing other work.

We pull them together out the top after taking the hood off, shove a tail plug in and tape it then up and out. Comes out at a crazy steep angle.

If you are just swapping the engine and trans from one car to another wouldn't it be less work to just pull the engine and trans, leaving the K member alone?

It might, but I'm swapping the exhaust, the rear, the PCM, and the fuel pump as well. If I don't have to pull anything off the engine (including the headers and H-Pipe) I'll be that much further ahead.  I've set the 29th as the start of the project.  After that I'll start parting the car out, so if anybody has any parts requests, send me a PM and we can talk about what you need.

I have pulled the engine and tranny at the same time...you just check around to see what is attached to the car, un hook it, then take your motor mounts loose and your exauhst.. there is no need to pull the bumper.. my bumper is still attached...the bumper has nothing to do with getting the engine and tranny out...and pulling them together is much easier than pulling them seperate. It will take two people...one to hoist, and the other as a spotter...I found it useful to use a Jack, very carefully under the tranny as my husband was hoisting the engine out... Good Luck with your car :) It wont be too bad.

Look up engine and transmission removal on you tube, that will give you an idea of what needs done :)

Oh, and we didnt remove the K member.

Apparently, you didn't read enough to understand that I wasn't asking for advice.  I was asking "if anyone has done it this way or similar?".  Technically a yes/no question.  Anyone answering "Yes." might have been asked for advice.  If you do yours differently, that's fine.  But if that's the case, I don't know what compelled you to answer.  A sufficient answer would have been, "No, I've never done it that way, and I don't know anyone who has.". 

I know you're not new, and I know you know what you're doing, but you don't know my whole situation, my resources, or my reasons; you only know what I'm planning.  If you don't agree with my battleplan, so to speak, you may say so, but there is no reason to flame.

If you post a question your going to get an answer :P May not always be the response you want either.

Did the first pull day before yesterday.  Came out the bottom good, it took about an hour and 45, but I've got to give myself 20 minutes for messing around with the rear brake line mount from the passenger inner body rail and the p/s hose mount from the driver's inner body rail.  If I hadn't had a 1/4" line union already in the line up by the front, I'd have had to make one.  Once the engine was on the floor, it took about 20 minutes to put the K and it's springs back in.  The other car doesn't have clips on the lines and hoses attaching them to the body, and it also has a union in the rear line by the front.  I love having a powertrain table.  The engine is ready for the transplant, the new headers are on and the new h-pipe is in place.

I pull the powersteering and ac brackets off together, undo the two bolts for the motor mount, unplug harness's and ground/starter cable and gas and trans lines, undo the two bolts for the transmission and drop the y-pipe. If your y-pipe/exhaust manifold bolts are clean/been off recently, its litterly 5 minutes.

Then you swap just the motor mounts over, and lay it back in there. Start to finish in about 2 hours.

I have always wanted to drop a k-member before though, just to see how rusty the beast really is.

I take it you had access to a car lift??

I haven't, no.

Just a harbor freight cherry picked setup on the front with a short chain, then a come along wraped aroind the tail of the trans on the back. As you lift it up, you can hang it almost straight up (with the hood off...) and pull it back until the oilpan is about resting on the radiator. Then you come along the trans untill you have enough clearance to pull it over the header panel.

That is pretty neat, I never would have thought of doing it like that. I always seems mess the paint up pulling the engine out from the top.

Yup, best part, you can leave your ac/ powersteering in the engine bay. Leave exhaust manifolds on, dipstick, intake(although its easier to pill the upper off.) I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting, haven't swapped an engine in 5 or so years.

@haystack - The way you see the motor in the pic is the way it came out.  Fully dressed.  I consider that to be one of the advantages to dropping rather than pulling.  Additionally, I spilled no ATF or oil because the engine didn't tilt at all, I scratched no paint, and I did it without a spotter.

I did mine like Haystack. I spilled no ATF because I put a yolk in the trans and capped off the trans cooler connectors. No spotter either, although I would have liked to have had one. I was scared to death it might come down on the nose of my bird. I assume u done it with a lift. I no longer have access to one. Would have thought un-doing the K-member with the engine in would be a bear. I guess not. Good work!

My buddies old 4-runner we pulled the engine through the bottom.

Someone ran a light and he was moving pretty good and couldn't stop in time and t-boned them. We got my little 2 ton engine puller, unbolted everything and lifted it by the bumper brackets to get to the engine and trans. We did cut out the coss member and motor mounts with a sawsall(motor was trapped inside by bodywork). It was pretty quick and painless. Love working on stuff that you can take a saws all to.

Thanks.  Before I pulled the 8 k-member bolts, I pulled the 4 sway bar bolts and the 2 cross member bolts. Also I unbolted the struts and pulled the springs. I had quite a bit of the car's weight on the table in addition to the powertrain's weight, because I expected the 2 to part company quickly once detached.  I didn't want any surprises from sudden weight loss.

Hey dude..sorry if i came off as a dick earlier...the main thing is you had time and the tools to do it your way, and it worked out well for ya. I do things differently sometimes, so what place did I have to come off like I did. For that, I'm sorry.

So..are you pulling the engine from to put in another, or rebuild or what's the plan(s)?

I need to get on the ball with my other 5.0..get it to the shop for some cleaning so I can try to have it together for a summer test drive. Still have a few things to do yet, such as locate an Explorer intake set..

Anyway...just wanted to apologize and find out a little more about your goings-on...BTW, what ever came of your SHO? (I must've missed the result of that one..?)

I appreciate that Beau, thank you.

I started out with 2 T-Birds, and I'm ending with 1 Bird and a part out car.  The SHO came out well, but as soon as it was good and I was happy with it, I got out and sold it.  I hate doing things twice, but if it had come to 3 times I might have needed to be locked up.

Out with the Boat Anchor...

...in with the hotness.

Very nice man!

Swapped the axle assemblies today, done by noon. With the new headers, the new H-pipe, and the new roadrunner 2600rpm stall converter, it faster than the other car ever was, and that was before swapping the stock 2.73 for the other car's 3.73.

That's just awsome.