My late mid-life crisis 77 Spider

[Nanonevol]

I hope it doesn't come to that. That would be another first for me. Know anyone with real strong arms?

[RRoller123]

I sold my engine crane a little too soon. But they are pretty inexpensive down at HF in Attleberry.

[Nanonevol]

Haven't given up trying to crack that bolt yet. I love HF. I go to the one in Worcester. I've developed a tool fetish and am tempted to buy some kind of engine lift. My New England thrift side says to park it under a tree limb and rig up a winch.

[RRoller123]

That is good but you can't roll the tree back too easily.

[Nanonevol]

Just had to man up and give this a yank. You have to believe it will crack off.

Not surprised the transmission isn't just falling off the car. I'm using the shake, shimmy and pull method. I have a HF transmission jack under it. Should the motor have a jack supporting it too? Any tips on separating this trans from the car?

[RRoller123]

Motor mounts in place?

It looks like the wrong bolt was used, not anything to do with the threads, thus the washers to fool it into thinking it is a short bolt.

[Nanonevol]

Exactly right. I think maybe they didn't use enough washers and that's why the block cracked.

[RRoller123]

The crack looks on the outside of the thread channel and doesn't leak any oil?

[Nanonevol]

Nope. Hasn't leaked and looks like the bolt still has plenty of solid metal to thread into. I'll find the correct bolt for reassembly without all those washers. Current issue is wobbling that trans off the block. There's about an inch or less gap. I've got a jack on the shallow, back part of the oil pan and the trans is supported. Trying not to let it hang on the shaft in any way. Wondering how long that shaft is.

[RRoller123]

Someone else can chime in who has done this before (not I) but I wonder if you could loosen the engine mounting bolts to allow the system to tilt a little and make it easier to remove the gearbox? Watch out supporting the oilpan anywhere, it is thin and will easily dent.

[azruss]

Yes, loosen the motor mounts on one end. you can jack the front of the engine up by using a piece of plywood on the front lip of the pan and jack up with a floor jack. watch the back top of the engine as it will make contact with the firewall. at this point no more jacking. This does buy you a lot of room for removal. The newer cars seem to have a longer tranny tunnel to help. Once you have 1" of separation, the tranny should fallout. make sure the alignment between the motor or tranny stay true so you aren't binding up the splines. I have also unbolted the drive shaft from the rear end and pulled it out of the guibo. It helps to have the tranny in neutral, so you can rotate the guibo to the sweet spot for removing the bolts.
That seems like a lot of oil out of the front of the diffy. My guess is your front seal is a goner. This is not a simple replacement as how tight the nut is after replacement is critical. Read up on it before you decide to do it.

[Nanonevol]

Thanks, that was a good tip to jack the front engine. The gap was wider at the top. I must be close, no?
Passenger side

Top drivers side

But it wont F'in come off!

[Nanonevol]

I'm stuck. I've heard other people having trouble at this point separating the transmission from the motor but never any descriptions of what methods are used to make it happen. The inch or so I've gotten is by prying and shaking with a big screwdriver and a crowbar. I'm trying with jacks to keep the two what I think is aligned. This is a splined shaft in a splined hole I imagine. Bigger crowbar? More brute force? Any advice from experience would be greatly appreciated.

[RRoller123]

Haven't done this myself, but it is probably an alignment issue?

[Nanonevol]

Maybe so. How does one know? I've got the trans about an inch away from the motor. It would be way cool if someone could tell me if I'm close.