Pulling Engine - Quick Question

[kridgleyud]

I'm pulling the old 218 out of my 40 sedan and as this is my first non-SBC motor pull (I'll have help from my pop) and I'm at work thinking about this cause well ... it beats workin'.  Right now, car has no brakes, just an operational hand brake that we use when moving it around.  Front clip is off and motor bolt-ons removed.

Going to be moving this out of the garage to pull motor, then tow the body and frame down to pops shop for welding.  Looked at the service manual and it says to remove the engine with trans but think it would be A LOT easier to unbolt and drop the trans prior.

Quick question:

Should I go with removing the motor at the bell housing and leaving trans and driveshaft and parking brake in car ... or drop drive shaft, and drop trans from the bell housing .. or just pull everything out (engine w trans)?

I would prefer to leave the trans alone ... Is it possible to remove like this:  Our would trans need to be dropped to do that?

[casper50]

with the front clip already off it would be easier to remove with trans IMO

[40plyguy]

 I agree. With the body work off the front end, it would be easier to remove the eng and trans in one shot......I didn't do that when removing the engine from my 40 though. I pulled back the trans. I had the fenders and grille still on the car. The rad and mounting bracket was removed as well as the water pump and fan. I also had to remove the inner fender sheet metal. When all was said and done, only a few more bolts were left and the whole nose of the car would have been off making it much easier to pull the eng.

[jeffsunzeri]

What reason would there be to go against the service manual's suggestion? Even if you are not planning on a trans rebuild, you will have a much easier time dealing with the engine/trans as a unit rather than trying to un-mate and mate later.

[kridgleyud]

Thanks guys.  I'm going to do it all.  Sounds like its the easiest way to go while sheet metal is off.

The only reason I asked is because from searching .... people typically pull the trans then the motor ... but as said previous - sheet metal is off so why not.

[casper50]

K to be honest I've never removed a trans first when pulling an engine sheetmetal off or not.  Just easier to me.

[Don Coatney]

The blue engine pictured above is a 25" Desoto engine two inches longer than the factory Plymouth engine. And the transmission I installed is a T-5 that is longer than the factory transmission. It would have been a really tight squeeze to install the two together. So by removing the transmission the install was much easier and weighed a lot less than the combined weight of the engine and transmission.

[40desoto]

Don, but its installing  the t5 transmission using the modified stock bellhousing  much easier to do from under the car than let's say a fluidrive or torqueflight transmission?

 

 

 

 

[Don Coatney]

3 hours ago, 40desoto said:

Don, but its installing  the t5 transmission using the modified stock bellhousing  much easier to do from under the car than let's say a fluidrive or torqueflight transmission?

 

 

 

 

I don't know. I have never done a fluid drive unit or a torque flight from underneath. I have done a few ford automatics and big truck Internationals when I was young and strong but I would not attempt doing so today.

[Andydodge]

When you are young and silly like I was at 15 anything is possible.........lol......... I was able to remove the complete engine, gearbox and driveshaft as ONE LONG PIECE from the 1940 Dodge Coupe I had by unbolting but not disconnecting properly, firstly the driveshaft flange from the rear of the handbrake drum, then again not disconnecting properly the gearbox input shaft from the clutch so I had a 10-12 foot long sausage that I eventually removed in one piece by pushing the car ever so more backwards...........lol.........of course once the whole lot was sitting on the ground in front of the car it came apart quite easily but that was my 1st "engine" removal trick.............lol...........btw this is the only pic I have of my poor old Oz 1940 Dodge Coupe,it was taken before I bought it in 1969, the pic appeared in an Oz magazine in 1972 after I had pulled the car apart, it was eventually sold and has disappeared, note the differences in the roofline to the US coupes...........my brown 1940 Dodge Sedan was to be spare parts for it.........lol..........andyd..