C2 - Starting My Engine Swap

[Ed R.]

Yesterday I began the day ready to start removing parts and pieces in prepartion of my engine swap. This is a 66 Coupe 327/300 4 speed. So, I got the car on jack stands, got my reference books nearby, got my tools ready, all is good. First thing I will attack is removing the drive (propeller) shaft, no problem. Study the Chassis Service Manual, wiggle myself under the back end of the car and remove nut on the underside of the biscuit. Great, off to a good start. The next step says to 'pry the carrier downward to relieve load while removing the two center mounting bolts from the carrier front support.' OK, seems easy enough. The manual then states, 'To pry carrier downward insert crowfoot end of a pry bar through the opening in the carrier front support, hooking end of bar over top of the center mounting bolt pad cast in the underside of the carrier.' At this point I said, HUH?!!! What opening? Top of center; underside of carrier? What??? I must have re-read this thing a thousand times without ever getting anything done. I have a crowbar but there must be a specific size required. Also, if I finally get this crowbar hooked somewhere what am I leveraging against? Maybe I just need a picture. Today I'm licking my wounds an rethinking my next move.

So here I am, looking for any help anyone can give and thinks in advance everyone.

[William C.]

Re: C2 - Starting My Engine Swap

The driveshaft will remove without the pry bar, undo the four nuts on the front U-joint, and using a thin box end wrench do the same to the ones on the rear. The driveshaft can then be moved up over the housing (rearward)enough to let it drop down in the tunnel and be removed.

[Joe L.]

Re: C2 - Starting My Engine Swap

Ed-----

As the manual states, the best way to remove the differential unit (which is what I think you're talking about) is to remove it with the bolt-in crossmember attached.

To do this, you need to remove the bolt on each side which goes through the center of the large cushion on each side. Then, install longer bolts so that you have about 2", or more, of extra length (these allow the carrier/crossmember to drop without hitting the floor).

Next, install a LONG, STOUT prybar, wedging against the stationary crossmember right behind the removable one. Usually, it will take a LOT of prying and force on both sides to dislodge the cushions from the "sombrero" mounts on the frame.

[Ed R.]

Re: C2 - Starting My Engine Swap

Just to clarify, I am talking about the carrier front support. There are only 3 bolts to this thing, one that attaches to the frame cross memeber and two that are through bolts in the differential. I see I could remove the four nuts at the rear u-joint of the drive shaft but it's a tight fit with this front support in place. One other question, can the two through bolts actually be removed before hitting the floor pan? Maybe I'm working to hard at this.

[John H.]

Re: C2 - Starting My Engine Swap

Ed -

You don't need to disassemble the diff front support bracket to remove the driveshaft. Remove the U-joint U-bolt nuts on the front yoke at the transmission end, remove the U-joint U-bolt nuts on the rear yoke at the differential, push the front yoke forward into the trans, and remove the driveshaft toward the front.

[Ed R.]

Re: C2 - Starting My Engine Swap

OK, thanks everyone. I'll ignore the manual and disconnect the rear u-joint without fussing with this bracket.

[Timothy B.]

Re: C2 - Starting My Engine Swap

ED,

The service manual does tell you to move the carrier bracket out of the way to access the rear driveshaft u-joint bolts. If the weight of the car is on the wheels, you can remove the front through bolt and loosen the other and swing the bracket down to access the u-joint bolts. If the car is off the ground, the spring tension will want to twist the rear up so you have to block the rear from above to hold it's position then remove the bolts and swing the bracket out of the way. I am sure this way will require some prying (because of spring tension) to center the holes so the bolts will come out.

[John H.]

Re: C2 - Starting My Engine Swap

Tim -

What method do you like to use to remove the front through-bolt?

[Timothy B.]

Re: C2 - Starting My Engine Swap

John,

I think I would use your method to remove the drive shaft because the front bolt is probably frozen and hard to loosen. When I removed the drive shaft (transmission) from my car the rear wheels were on the ground and front wheels on car ramps and also everything had been apart before so it was not difficult to swing the brace out of the way and access the u-joint bolts. I did not mean to give bad information. Tim