4 replies to this topic

[charliefarlie37]

Changing my engine this weekend, but wont be able to commit to doing it in a day, I will need to be able to push the mini back in the garage overnight.
I know I need to pull the driveshafts from the engine but what's the best way of leaving it so I can keep the car on its wheels? Split the shafts and reassemble the hubs? Cheers

[GraemeC]

Just put the hubs back on with the shafts resting on the hole in the subframe.

[MiniMadRacer]

Or leave it all apart and push it back in the garage on a trolley jack under the sub frame.. just dont push it off the jack

[FlyingScot]

Drain the oil if you haven't done already. Then when you have dismantled the ancillaries and everything else holding the engine in lift the engine well up off its mounts and using a long crow bar lever the inner joints out.

 

Because the shafts are at the limit of the angle you can achieve you gain some room and you can get them out.

 

Get the lever point on a bolt on the diff cover so as not to damage it. Start on the passenger side and then once off you can swing the engine over a bit to do the same on the drivers side.

 

This avoids the need to 1) Split the hub balljoints etc 2) split the inner pot joints which I often see advocated (which is bad ) 

 

It also means that refitting is straight forward. I normally tie a string onto the shaft so that I can lower the engine down to meet the lifted shaft and then guide the end back into the diff cover carefully.

 

A hefty shove towards the shaft or swinging it a few times sees the circliped end in place - repeat for the other side (you normally have to lift the engine back up a bit once you have the first shaft fully home).

 

With a little care this saves you lots of work....

 

FS

[cal844]

Drain the oil if you haven't done already. Then when you have dismantled the ancillaries and everything else holding the engine in lift the engine well up off its mounts and using a long crow bar lever the inner joints out.

Because the shafts are at the limit of the angle you can achieve you gain some room and you can get them out.

Get the lever point on a bolt on the diff cover so as not to damage it. Start on the passenger side and then once off you can swing the engine over a bit to do the same on the drivers side.

This avoids the need to 1) Split the hub balljoints etc 2) split the inner pot joints which I often see advocated (which is bad )

It also means that refitting is straight forward. I normally tie a string onto the shaft so that I can lower the engine down to meet the lifted shaft and then guide the end back into the diff cover carefully.

A hefty shove towards the shaft or swinging it a few times sees the circliped end in place - repeat for the other side (you normally have to lift the engine back up a bit once you have the first shaft fully home).

With a little care this saves you lots of work....

FS

Splitting the pot joints isn't an issue IF the shaft, pot and diff casing are marked to line them up, then when the joint is out count the ball bearings and then cover with a glove.

That's how I've done it for 10 years and never had an issue.

Just my opinion though!

Regards

Cal

Edited by cal844, 22 May 2020 - 06:14 PM.