When I pull the 4 speed transmission in my 64 do I have to completely remove the distributor? Can I get by with just setting the cap and wires aside to give me enough room to tilt the engine down in the back without hitting the firewall? Thanks in advance!

 

why do you have to tilt the engine?

 

You asked this same question in another thread a few days ago?? No, you don't absolutely have to pull the distributor but you run a fairly good risk of buggering something up on your distributor of the firewall, or your tach drive if you don't. And yes, if you are just pulling the transmission alone you will have to drop the rear of the engine down (tiliting it).

 

did something change from 64 to 67 that you have to allow for the engine to tilt. watched my dad take out his 67 4 speed without tilting the engine

 

OOPS! I had better get some better glasses! I looked and did not see my original post before posting this one, I'll try and do better, but at my age no promises!!!

I did get into the movies last night with a senior discount! That is a good thing, right!

If I have a trans jack does the engine need to be tilted?

 

I've had the Muncie out of my 66 3 or 4 times from underneath and there is no way it's coming out without dropping the rear of the engine significantly to gain room for the input shaft to clear the bellhousing. Even then it contacts the bellhousing lightly as I lever it past the opening to remove. That's with the mount, shifter and yoke removed.

With the engine at it's normal position, it probably lacks almost an inch to clear and that is with the transmission rotated on it's side a little and crammed as far back over the cross member as it will go. Of course even if the input cleared that far back it would do no good because the tail housing is so wedged between the tunnel and the crossmember that it's trapped and the nose of the transmission can't be lowered to remove it. Dropping the rear of the engine to remove the transmission is SOP - it's even written into the GM shop manual instructions for 3 & 4 speed trans removal in Chapter 7-7.

I have read that some guys pull the transmission and bellhousing together from underneath. I have never tried this. But I think that in this case you would not have to lower the rear of the engine. Possibly that's how the transmission was removed from your Dad's 67

 

Scroll down to post 13 in this thread and LARS explains the process for removing a transmission and bell housing at the same time. He doesn't mention needing to lower the rear of the motor with this method.

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...n-removal.html

 

Same here. Removed '67 Muncie w/o removing dist.

 

Install this little item and next time it might work better for you. I have the lakewood two piece model.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ansen-7209-2...xWDUml&vxp=mtr

 

I've roundtripped Muncies in several midyears and never heard about removing the distributor. I always removed the bellhousing at the same time.

 

I removed the bolts from the bell housing and tilt it down to let the transmission shaft clear its opening. No need to tilt the engine.

 

I have done this both ways, and for me the tilt method with bellhousing in place is much easier. Neither the distributor nor the shielding needs to be removed to get requisite clearance. Either way, it's a miserable job.

 

Watch out for your fan. You may want to remove it because when you tilt it down, the fan hits the shroud. Thats the way it is on the big block anyway.

 

I’ve pulled my Muncie out of my small block ’67 twice in the last five years without pulling the distributor or the bell housing. I lower the rear of the engine carefully watching the clearance from the bottom. The engine can be lowered enough to clear the input shaft without the distributor contacting the firewall.

Pull the motor mount to frame connecting bolts so as not to stress the motor mount rubber. Use a wooden cradle to support the engine as JohnZ has recommended many times. A transmission jack and lift are a huge help.

 

I just pulled the Muncie M-21 out of my 64 coupe. I pulled the dist. cap off {just in case), put a jack under the oil pan using John Z's method, removed u-joints from front of drive shaft, pull driveshaft to the rear and set to the side of the cross-member, and remove yoke ( might want to put plug in to stop the oil from coming out), removed all the shifter linkages from transmission, shifter and lower from below. then remove the shifter mount, removed top two trans-bellhouse bolts and replaced with bolts with heads removed (dowels), removed lower trans-bellhouse bolts and removed the tailstock mount. Pull back transmissions until input shaft clears bellhousing, start to gently lower front of transmission by the left side of bellhouse and while doing so, rotated trans. counter clockwise 1/4 turn, and it should come out. I did this while lying on my back with the car on jackstands and without a jack under the transmission, I bench pressed that sucker out, and I'm 64. I never had to lower the engine.

 

I think variances in floor pan height to the cross member must explain why a some have managed to get a transmission out without dropping the rear of the engine and others can't. My floor doesn't sag since I repaired the bulkhead brace and so forth during it's rebuild, but no way is there room in mine to force the transmission back far enough before it's tightly wedged in, even with some rotation. It's not even close. The input will barely clear the bell housing register with some force after dropping the engine down.

Obviously GM didn't include that in the shop manual procedure without a reason.

Sounds like removing the bell housing with the transmission works pretty good.