"Vinny" – Engine Out

Even though my wings are not perfect (body work done, just not painted) I still want to protect them so I used a couple of IKEA single mattress pads. They seemed to work quite well 😀 Quick slit to go over the light pods and they sit on the wings perfectly. Also a good place for tools as now they don’t slip off.

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So first job is to take the bonnet off, couple of screws front and back and then the two inner supports and with the help of the wife the bonnet lifts off (this can be done on your own of course but easier with 2 people). [Again, make sure you have somewhere to put all of this, a blanket on top of the car is a good tip, although I used the top of the 4CV in this case 😉 ]

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Next is the front grill. A little fiddly with 4 bolts either side plus brackets attaching it to the radiator. Try and be careful not to scratch too much of the paint work 😯 With this removed it gives full access to the front of the engine and also allows the engine to come out of the car towards the front. No more body panels need to be removed.

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So onto disconnecting everything that connects then car to the engine. I started off at the front with the speedo cable connection to the gearbox. This is a simple locking bolt that you loosen, pull the cable and then put the bolt back in. Tuck the cable out of the way.

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Next is the horn assembly, I unbolted the bracket and tucked the bracket complete with horn(s) away to the right. Put the nuts back onto he gearbox for safe keeping.

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Next job are the electrical connections on the left side (looking from the front). This part of the cable loom should be running across the bottom of the radiator. Un screw the connectors (taking note of where each wire comes from) and tuck away with the horn assemble to the right. I have re-wired my car and each cable is numbered but a simple labelling system of putting a different colour of insulation tape on each of the 4 wires and then a tab of the same tape on the connector screw (thanks Dave – OSL282 for the tip, see post below)

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Radiator out of the way

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So now onto the top of the engine. I took off the air filter unit and stored it away. Then disconnected the accelerator mechanism and choke cable to the carburettor. Tuck all of these away from the engine.

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Next is the starter motor connections. One electrical and one mechanical.

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Onto the exhaust. Disconnect the 3 nuts and remove the Alternator (Dynamo) heat guard.

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You also need to disconnect the support strap underneath car that connects the gearbox to the bottom of the exhaust tube. Once you have done this the pipe will pull off easily and sit out of the way.

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Now go around the other side of the engine. The next thing is to disconnect the low voltage and hight voltage connections to the distributor as well as the dwell angle adjustor cable.

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Now it is time to undo the 4 nuts holding the drive shafts onto the output couplings. At this point it is better to jack up the car and put axle stands as far as possible towards the front wheels. This allows you to spin the driveshafts to ease the undoing of the nuts and also provides the best clearance to wiggle the driveshafts free of the gearbox. It also allows you to get the engine hoist under the car – mine would not fit under the bottom suspension arms unless it was jacked up.

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Rotate the driveshaft to remove each of the nuts.

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Next I unbolted the top gear box support. This was a little fiddly and I pulled one long bolt out from each side. I had to loosen the large nut (holds the front suspension assembly to the car and the bumper bracket). This allowed free movement of the support. I didn’t take out the other two long bolts (one either side) at this stage – I wanted to support the engine/gearbox with the engine hoist first. You also need to disconnect the two angled struts. I released the bottom two bolts on either side, leaving the struts still attached to the support brace.

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Engine bay all empty

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And the engine on top of my tool chest using the engine stand (detailed in the workshop manual) that I built for the engine earlier this year.

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So that is my method for the engine removal. As I say it may not be the perfect procedure but I just worked from the front and the left of the engine and then right of the engine, raised the car and pulled the engine.

Took me an afternoon on my own. It may be better with a helper, specially when man handling the hoist and engine. I did get my wife in at this point, who supervised me very well 😕

Ian, thank you for this. I will put it to good use as I set about removing the engine from my Traction.
It’s good that you used a clean engine etc., so you can actually SEE what’s going on. If I were to try such a thing, it would be a waste of time, as the nuts are buried under years of grime or covered in rust!

Your wooden engine stand looks like just the thing. Unfortunately, I can’t find the drawings. My old maintenance manual has a drawing of a metal engine stand. Not easy to decipher, and less easy to build than your simple wooden stand.