I need some tips to make engine removal of a 16v easier......

On the motor mounts do you take the three bolts off the plate on the body or the bolt off the middle part of the mount?
 
    I know when taking the three bolts off the plate you have to fight with the steering shaft, and sometimes its hard to keep the plates up off the frame when taking the motor out. When you seperate it in the middle you have to loosen the bolt on the intake mounting bracket to get to the bolt on the motor mount to loosen
 
With the bracket for the clutch cable after you take the bolts out of the tranny and disconnet the the clutch cable from the trans. Do you still have to loosen the bolts of the bracket on the motor to allow the motor to wiggle off the trans?

    The back bolt towards the rear of the vehicle is easy to get to on the clutch bracket on the motor but the front one is tough! 

 I have taken out several motors. By myself with no air tools I can remove an engine in about three hours.

Any tips or tricks to speed up the process would be helpful. Thanks

I use a Ford wrench to get the upper belllhousing bolts out (30" 3/8"extension).  3 hours is not that bad of a time.

Quote from: smife on February 25, 2011, 07:02:07 AM

I need some tips to make engine removal of a 16v easier......

On the motor mounts do you take the three bolts off the plate on the body or the bolt off the middle part of the mount?
I take the 3 bolts out.  You can work around the steering shaft with a wobble extension.

I'm assuming (I know what assumptions make, an A$$ blah, blah, blah) that the inbound motor has mounts on it.  If so just punch the center bolt out.  If you need to do some repair around the body mount location pop all three out, otherwise two are easier than three.

Thanks BRD HTNR, I normally have good luck with the bell housing bolts. I use 3/8's drive and try to wiggle a cheater pipe on the ratchet.

Sky, I think sometimes the clutch cable bracket that hooks to the motor and the trans. is holding me up. I think this because sometimes I have a hard time getting the motor off the dial pins in the bell housing, so I blame it on that bracket not allowing me to "rock" the motor.  I'm sure there is a more logically reason? I just don't know what it is.....

I've only taken the motor mount apart once, I usually take the three bolts out of the body mount. The last Tracker I took the motor out of, 95 2dr. 16v, One of the captured nuts on the bottom of the body mount broke loose and I couldn't get the bolt out. Then after I got the motor out I was ablt to grind the head off the bolt to get it to release.


So what is the trick to getting the motor off the dail pins on the bellhousing??

They are called dowels.  Really no "trick" to speak of...they are slip fit...so you can rock the engine a little bit to get the engine to slide off the bolts.  The one thing that always helps me is to support the tranny (with a jack, blocks, or even a strap underneath it), when you raise the engine up (to try to slide it forward off the tranny).  If you make sure the tranny is still "in line" with the engine, it won't be binding on the bolts and dowels, when you try to break the engine loose from it.  Then just work the engine side to side and it will slide off the bolts/dowels.  Some engines seem to be "stuck" to the tranny a little harder than others, but they all will eventually come off.
Oh, another thing is to make sure the plate (the metal spacer between the engine and tranny) comes off evenly, when you get the engine broke loose.  Sometimes it will hang up on the dowels and bolts and bind up the engine removal.  Just make sure it either stays on the tranny or the engine and you will be fine.