Getting the engine back in, how to, please read, please help.

well the rain has stopped so I thought I would try and put my engine back in, its on a motorcycle stand and sitting level, try as I can I can't seem to get it back in the gap, as I jack it up it either touches the shaft out of the gear box or the fan shroud touches the back of the engine bay.

There must be a knack to this, but at the moment struggling to see what that is. Any clue as to how gratefully received.

 

Lawnmower or pancake? I had issues with mine too....eventually just jacked mine up level with the pinion shaft, got the bottom studs seated then got a foot on either side of the block, got a good grip on the back valance and wiggled it in

 

Type 4 in a cross over

 

Sounds like a type 4 if the fan is catching. Undo 2 rear gearbox mount bolts and support gearbox with a trolley jack. Lower the rear of the gearbox, slide the engine on to the shaft then lift them up together

 

Glad mines a type 1 lump....that sounds like a right pain in the ass! lol

 

Didn't have to drop the gearbox to get it out ... I didn't take it out, someone else did.

 

Gravity helps getting it out its not so keen at putting them back in

 

Turn the bus upside down?

 

Wiggle the input shaft to line the up the splines to get it sliding on?

 

mick, How do I do the gearbox mounts up after because they are behind the rear tinware?

your not helping

 

first got to get bit that high ... starting to wonder what I should do ... call a MacChanic ... do you know any?

 

I did just this last night - at least with a T1 motor (and numerous times in the past with Bugs).

I find it easiest to lift the motor up on an ordinary trolley jack, with the lifting pad seated on the (steel) sump plate, as opposed to on the alloy crank case. It balances well enough there. The advantage of this is that I can wiggle the motor more easily left/right and up/down, pivoting on the sump plate.

Bear in mind that the back of the bus will be lighter with the motor out, so the suspension will raise a little, so the bell-housing won't be perfectly vertical and the input shaft, not perfectly horizontal.

Also, (in my admittedly limited with Type 2s...) experience the rear piece of tin-ware needs to be removed to give you the required forward-back movement room.

So, with the motor balanced on the sump plate, I raised the jack up as far as I thought it needed to go. Since it balances fairly well, I was able to steady it with one end of the read brace bar (the mustache bar) while ducking down an looking up under the side of the bus, to see where one of the lower securing studs were in relation to the corresponding hole in the transmission. I needed to raise the motor up another inch or so.

Through trial & error I got the studs inline with the holes & I pushed the motor & jack forward. I had another visual check and the studs were in the holes but the motor was about 3 cm from the bell-housing - I could clearly see the flywheel.

This is where you need to wiggle a little. the studs are not a tight fit in the holes in the gearbox, so they will go in, even if the motor is still a little low. You will just need to experiment with jacking up a little, wiggling, dropping it down a little & wiggling until it pops in...

It is possible that the splines on the input shaft are exactly inline with the splines on the clutch disk. if so, they will bind and stop you pushing the motor onto the shaft. if this happens just turn the crank a little.

Also, if you turn the crank a little and hear a grinding sound, that will be the teeth on the flywheel grinding on the bell-housing...this will be telling you that the motor is a little too high or a little too low.

Trust me.. it will work!!

I spend half an hour wiggling, raising & lowering the motor on Tuesday before it popped in... I did it again yesterday & it went in 1st time. On that....make sure you poke the throttle cable through its hole on the rear tinware and feed it through the tube in the fan-shroud before you get the motor all bolted up!!!!

Of course, once you have the motor in, you will then have the absolute joy that is job of screwing on the nut that goes on the bolt that also holds the starter on...

All that said...if you've a T4 motor, I've never done one of them, so I don't know the details....but I reckon it can't be tooooo much different...

Good luck!!

Paul.

 

Theres some belters north of the wall I hear....

 

again doesn't help ... as am down sarf

 

Thanks I'll go out and try a bit of wriggling

 

blu-tack is your friend here

Although it took me several attempts and crawling under the bus before I realised that lol

 

a problem for the future .... at least at the moment

 

Will you then try and put the engine back in?

 

The gearbox hanger bolts are accessible from in front of the tinware the heads face the front.
Americans with T4 s oftte remove both the gearbox and engine together .. or just hinge the gearbox down to meet..

 

Let me have another look, I have tried 5 times so far and can't see how to get the front past the shaft or the dipstick tube thingy past the back. So this might be my only option

Lot harder than I expected, but the last motor I put back in was an engine in a Cortina MK 1 long time ago.