valued opinion sought

[Don Jordan]

I don't think there will be a right or wrong answer - but many opinions.

I would like to avoid your mistakes. I am pulling the engine. I have already removed the hood. Will I be able to pull the engine with the transmission on or should I take it off first?

It's a 47 2 door sedan.

thanks,

[steveplym]

I would pull the trans first. I could never get it to clear the firewall. If you have the radiator support out and some of the front sheet metal off maybe. Others may have had different experiences, but it never worked for me.

[greg g]

I did mine seperately. You can do them as unit, but you have to have a long boom on the picker and a good heavy duty load leveler. The angle to pull them together is very steep. Do not use the harbor freight load leveler or similar offshore stuff, they are not built for a 700 lbs of engine not to mention the other 60 or so of the bellhousing and trans.

even so my boom slipped inward from its extended position with the engine hanging. I had to take off the front wheels off ad lower the car in order to just barely clear the radiator support.

[garbagestate 44]

I pulled the trans first. I also pulled the radiator, core support, grill and related supporting sheet metal. I only pulled all that stuff because I knew I'd be doing the job without a helper and figured that if I didn't have to jack it so high then I could put most of the effort into pulling it clear of the car. If the trans had been attached it would have made the engine tail heavy when I shifted the load onto the hoist. If I had a helper at the time I probably would have left the trans attached since the extra set of hands could have held it up while I pulled the whole mess forward. Also, keep in mind that engine+trans together weigh in at close to 1000 lbs.

[Charlie Olson]

I pulled the trans first. I also pulled the radiator, core support, grill and related supporting sheet metal. I only pulled all that stuff because I knew I'd be doing the job without a helper and figured that if I didn't have to jack it so high then I could put most of the effort into pulling it clear of the car. If the trans had been attached it would have made the engine tail heavy when I shifted the load onto the hoist. If I had a helper at the time I probably would have left the trans attached since the extra set of hands could have held it up while I pulled the whole mess forward. Also, keep in mind that engine+trans together weigh in at close to 1000 lbs.

Depending upon what else you are doing, when you have a lot of the sheet metal removed, you can do an extra nice and easy job of cleaning up, painting and detailing of your engine bay, IMHO.

[Young Ed]

Pull the trans if you aren't pulling the front clip. Much easier that way and its not that hard to pull the trans.