It took a little longer than I had hoped to get to this point, but I finally got the engine removed this past Saturday. After dealing with a death in the family Easter weekend, Saturday was the first real Jeep day I had. Fortunately, it was well worth the wait.
After spending about an hour beating the hell out of the flywheel trying to get it to move, I called in reinforcements to help. I couldn’t keep the flywheel moving enough and still beat the back of it to keep the progress going. After a trip from my dad I was able to get the fly wheel off, and then I could focus on removing the now bare engine. Once I got the engine mounts unbolted and one of the mounts disconnected from the frame, a few pumps of the hoist lifted the engine from it’s long standing home between the frame rails.
The only problem that I hadn’t previously thought about was the mounting bolts to get the engine attached to the engine stand. With a 2″ bracket plus up to an int of additional block mount to go through, I didn’t have anything that would go through both the block and the stand and still have enough threads to attach a nut. After setting the suspended engine down on the engine stand brace, a quick run to the hardware store to source some nice bolts and I was in business. The last thing I was able to do before garage clean up was removal of the front drive shaft.
The next steps are to remove the steering linkages, brake system, and exhaust. Then it’ll finally be time to release the suspension and axels. Once I get to that point, it’s time for the fun to start and put the guy back together.
