Use the kidneys man

Are you familiar with that SNL skit where the guy pokes himself in the head and says "kidneys kidneys" as if he wasn't thinking well. Speaking of idiot proof instructions - did you know there is a sticker on the clutch plate which says "this side to the fly wheel". That was handy.

Unfortunately, there was not a sticker on the motor mounts which said "face the open 'C' toward the back" or on the engine hoist that said "extend the arm ALL the way so you can get the engine over the cross member".

I have pictures documenting these configuration details - in the case of the motor mount, I checked AFTER I installed them backwards but before I removed the block from the stand. That was nice.

In the case of the hoist ... I figured it out after I had 650# of iron swinging 2/3 of the way to where it is supposed to go and I realize the hydraulics are hitting the front bumper and that is as far as I can get. At this point, I had the bell housing back on = so I man handled it back out and around to a position I could get back on the stand.

With the bell housing (and my pouring sweat and slightly smashed finger from getting between two heavy things), I could not solve the puzzle of getting four mount bolts through the stand to the cover. My tired brain said two was good enough. I didn't bother to balance the way the arms where oriented either - so I soon as I started to slack the hoist, the engine rolled and I thought it was going to bend itself forward. It didn't - and I managed to pull the pin on the hoist arm and extend it another 12 inches to the next notch. Actually, I pulled it 13 inches - and then had to lift the engine with one hand while I love tapped the arm back into position so I could get the pin in. The weight was still pulling on the arm, so the pin took a bit of careful encouragement with the love sledge as well.

After that, It was pretty easy to crank it back up, wrestle it back over the engine bay and slowly ease it down over the mounts. I got a jack stand under the bell house and it sits fine in there. Tomorrow I will hang the transmission and the drive shaft (well the transmission at least - I may skip the drive shaft because I think I cut off the u-bolts and the u-joints are toast).

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