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I noticed in another thread that a few different methods of installing the engine and trans are used by a variety of folks.

Having done this myself quite0 a few times I found that assembling the entire power package as a unit prior to installation worked best for me because I had trouble getting to the bolts that mount the Final Drive to the Engine once it is installed.

Given that I will be repeating this operation in a few weeks, I thought I might solicit some input as to how folks that install the trans first then the engine manage to get the bolts in question tight. I should mention I prefer to torque any bolts I can.

It also helps that when I bought my house I got a gantry crane with it and I have a cherry picker so I can lift the engine from the back with the gantry and from the front with the cherry picker. This allows me to set the angle as needed to slip the package into the car. This can also be accomplished with a load leveler unit and a single lifting device.

What say you? How do you solve this problem if you do not install them as a single unit? What other tips and observations can you offer on this?

X, It appears to me you have all the equipment necessary to install as one unit. I did my installation in three steps as you probably noticed. I found with equipment I had available, as well as no sheet metal on my front end it was the best way for me. I can definitely see the benefit of installing as one uint.

This is a timely discussion as I'm going to have to do this very soon. Everything is out of the car and there's no front sheet metal on. If you put everything together as a unit, is it really easy to put it back in as one unit? I thought I would put the tranny back in and get that all hooked up to the final drive, then put the engine in. That is essentially how it came out.

I'm very interested to hear more thoughts on the above. And Pictures!

I got teh NAPA CV boots, so hope to get the half-shafts all put back together soon, and start putting the car back together. This rest has been a long haul!

Thanks, Tim

If you have the front end off then you might have no trouble tightening the bolts on the final drive.

If the car is fully assembled then this becomes much harder in the car so I tend to bolt the power package together outside the car where I have much better access to these bolts. I then install it using two lifting devices or at least a load leveler that allows me to adjust the angle of the package as it goes in - the rear wants to be much lower than the front in order to clear the upper firewall/doghouse assembly.

I took my engine and trans out as a unit as I could not figure how to separate the two until they were out of the car.
The heads and manifolds were off at the time which may have made it easier, but I used a cherry picker with a leveler, and the leveler really helped a lot.
This was done with all the front sheet metal on, but the radiator out.