Transmission/Engine Work

["Greg Gormley" <gfgmika@domain.elided>]

Listers

Please find enclosed an additional posting for the tranny/engine removal
thread from a former lister and experienced Alfa specialist Jeff
Greenfield...

As I have never done any work as such, I am forwarding his info as sent to
me...




IMHO, it is virtually impossible to remove the engine and leave the
transmission in the car.

If you are considering doing any engine work, want to detail the engine
and/or the engine compartment then removing the engine and transmission
as a unit is the way to go. The big thing is that to do it this way, you
need an engine crane (cherry picker), enough ceiling height in your
garage to clear the end of the boom, and having a twin post lift is a
big help as well. You can do it with the car on jack stands (has to be
up pretty high), but it is much easier if you can adjust the height of
the car as you maneuver the assembly in and out. Don't forget to
disconnect the ground strap (BTTDGTTS), and watch the retainers for the
shift detents on the transmission coming out, they get stuck on the edge
of the transmission tunnel.

I can have the power-train out and on the floor in under four hours.

Personally I prefer not to do it this way on a customer's car, unless
requested to do so, as this will lead to replacing engine mounts, hoses,
belts, seals, and many other things that you might as well do while the
engine is out because it is so much easier.

The transmission will come out and go in pretty easily with the engine
in the car. The tricks are:

- disconnect the center drag link at one end.
- disconnect the exhaust from the exhaust manifold and remove the front
pipe.

These two things will allow the engine to tilt rearwards enough to
remove the transmission without too much difficulty.

On reinstallation, use a floor jack and a chunk of a tu-ba-fur under the
front crank pulley to tilt the engine rearwards to facilitate
installation.

I use an input shaft from a junk transmission as an alignment tool for
the clutch. Conversely, if you have your transmission apart, install the
clutch before reassembling the transmission so you can use the input
shaft to align the clutch.

Plastic alignment tools work fine on most cars, unfortunately on Alfas
the tolerances seem to be much tighter and the plastic tools are not
precise enough. However, if you have to, you can use one of these, you
kind have to wiggle it around and try to center the clutch disc within
the range of movement.

There seems to be some variation from car to car on the ease of
installation. If your car is particularly stubborn and there does not
seem to be enough clearance between the bell housing and the
transmission tunnel, remove the four studs from the back of the engine,
(there are two different lengths, so keep them straight), install the
transmission, support it with a floor jack, and re-install the studs
using double nuts on the ends of the studs. Do not put the washers on at
this point, and put the second nut on the last few threads of the stud.
Screw them in, remove the nuts, put the washers on, and reinstall the
nuts.

On our race car, for ease of assembly and disassembly, I've replaced the
studs with bolts to make the transmission R&R easier. I do not know if
there are any good reasons as to why this should not be done ... it
would probably be a good idea to heli-coil the bolt holes in the block
if you do this.

BTW, I've done enough of these that I don't bother using a floor jack to
put them in. The floor jack usually just gets in the way, and is more
trouble then it is worth. As I recall the transmissions weigh less than
90 lbs or so.



Regards

Greg Gormley
Saint John NB, Canada
'76 Spider

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