dallarax19 wrote:OK on to next steps, is it possible to attach the engine to the gearbox and install it as a power pack into the car? If possible, is it easy or is it better to put the gear box in first and then install the engine? What is the standard practice to reinstall the engine/gearbox? I am not too excited about trying to wrestle the engine onto the end of the trans.
I only have experience of the way I installed the gearbox and engine in my A310. There are probably other equally good, or better, ways of doing it. For various reasons I didn’t want to buy an engine crane, insufficient space to store it, not sure whether there was enough headroom in the garage for it, etc, etc. I did it all with a motorcycle lifter that doesn’t take up much space and wasn’t expensive. The car needed to be elevated to work on the chassis and things underneath so it made sense to remove the gearbox and engine downwards, separately.
It wouldn’t be possible to remove the gearbox/engine downwards, bolted together, due to the chassis cross-member, near the engine supports, being in the way. I think, on your Phase II car, this cross-member is also a welded part of the chassis.
If you look at your previous thread, in July 2013, you’ll see how the gearbox was reinstalled on my A310.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=6576By the time the engine was ready for installation I’d already bolted the detachable cross member, that’s under the centre of the gearbox into the chassis. The wooden blocks at the clutch housing end of the box could then be removed and the gearbox was then supported with wooden packers on the detachable cross member and, obviously, the mounts at the nose of the box.
The engine installation was fairly straightforward using the lifter. I manhandled the engine off the assembly trolley and onto the lifter, then levelled the engine with pieces of wood under the sump. With the lifter in its lowest position the engine was pushed under the rear bodywork and then lifted to the height of the gearbox, but clear of it and with the engine mounts clear of their chassis plates. The engine mounts were fitted loosely at this stage.
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The engine was then pushed forward, with the mounts clearing the top of the chassis plates, until the gearbox shaft engaged with the clutch. It took a few attempts to get the alignment just right but it went in without a problem. I then bolted the two together, lifted them slightly to remove the wooden packers under the gearbox and then lowered the lifter so that the engine mounts sat on the plates that were then bolted into place. The lifter was then lowered away as the engine was now in place.
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You might be able to install the gearbox/engine as one piece from above but it looks as if you’d have to angle it, with the gearbox nose down to manoeuvre it over the chassis cross-member. I don’t know whether the engine would clear the bodywork at the rear of the car, not having tried it. Might be worth trying, as it isn’t a big job to connect or disconnect the gearbox and engine.
Before you join the engine and gearbox make sure that the two small alignment sleeves are in place in the back of the engine block or in the mating holes in the gearbox. You can watch these relative to their locating holes in the gearbox clutch housing as the two go together. You can see them in one of the photos above. They’re at 20 to and 20 past the hour at the lower edge of the block, near to where the heads fit, just outside the two straight edges.
Excuse the long-winded explanation.
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1970 A110V85 and 1980 A310V6.
