Club 80-90 Forums

Bearing in mind the old adage 'there's no silly questions'............

Is it at all possible to drop an engine through the inspection hatch into position, it sort of looks like it should fit with a bit of angling/tilting etc. Is the issue trying to clear the input shaft/oil filler or something much more obvious?

I've looked through the forums and the closest post I found was someone asking about an engine hoist being told engine must be dropped out from jacked up van - then lots of posts about removing engines etc this way.

Nope, it won't work.... slide the engine under the van, and then lift it up into position, either with a crane or by a jack from under ....
and bear in mind it's much easier to build it all up on the floor ( or bench) than in the van , and a complete unit is easier,to fit and bolt up

easiest to jack the van slightly
if the engine is not wearing a carb you don't need it up much maybe 6 inches, then lift it.
I now use a strap winch about 15 quid delivered

P1060814 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

P1060816 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

P1060817 by Paul_Barr, on Flickr

Thanks for the quick replies - think I was in denial.

As per another post I had to remove springs to lower van to fit into the garage, I was just trying to avoid rolling van out of garage etc etc. Engine is ready to go (I think)

image not working

Ecopod wrote:Thanks for the quick replies - think I was in denial.

As per another post I had to remove springs to lower van to fit into the garage, I was just trying to avoid rolling van out of garage etc etc. Engine is ready to go (I think)

Ah, maybe just shows on my computer because I'm not entirely sure how to link them!

It was just showing engine complete with carb etc - now obvious that van needs to come out of garage so may as well jack it up as high as needed. New plan is to bolt on minimum to allow me to roll it back into garage to complete fitting.

Thanks to both for clearing that up.

In my experience when doing this job on your own you are better taking the engine and gearbox out as an assembly because you can just lift the nose-mount into position and putting the nut and bolt through loosely and then jack/winch the engine end up into place using the nose as a pivot. You have more control that way.

I now have a small, flat, braked trolley for manouvreing the assembly round.

Ian

Engine is 70kg without any ancillaries, I'm told its getting on double with everything on it, gearbox is 40 kg
How do you move that lot....on you own?

Used a thin piece of plywood to slide the engine/gearbox assy. last time I refitted it into the van (by myself).

tobydog wrote:Used a thin piece of plywood to slide the engine/gearbox assy. last time I refitted it into the van (by myself).

Yep, same here ... hence the trolley.

Ian

Piece of rope on my bit of ply, feet braced on the front bumper and pulled. Didn't take much effort . If I can do it with my arferitis it must be easier for healthy bodies. If the drive were flatter I would have used some thin pipe underneath.