I plan to pull my SB and tranny together. What should I do with the driveshaft? Remove it too? Is there a way to secure it to the botom of the car?

Reason being, is that I need to do the engine swap in my driveway since my garage ceiling isn't that tall. I plan on completing the swap over a few weekends and plan to push the car in and out of the garage when I'll work on it.

Len

 

Why not remove the drive shaft? I suppose you could tie it up somehow but it will still need to rotate when you push the car around. I think it will be better if you just remove it.

 

I think you'll be pulling it anyway when you start putting things back together.

Steve

 

Tie it up along the shaft and not the universal. And if you drag it so what, it's not chrome plated is it?

 

Pull the driveshaft. You're going to have to remove it for re-installation of the engine/trans anyway, and the car won't roll well with the shaft tied up under the car.

 

I'm planning to pull my SB tomorrow and I just removed the driveshaft yesterday on my 73. Once you understand the assembly (which took me a couple hours of reading & poking around), it's very very simple. Two fasteners and 8 bolts total to remove it completely. But a couple of thoughts are fresh in my mind:

You'll need to secure the wheels somehow when you're undoing the bolt on the U-joints or the driveshaft will turn. I lowered one side of the car so a rear wheel was taking some of the weight.

Undo both U-joints, at the front and rear of the driveshaft. It's minimally more effort and helps to dislodge the driveshaft.

Tape the ends of the + shaped U-joint (books call it the spider) so all the little bearing don't fall out, and go real slow when you are dislodging the drive shaft.

After pulling the driveshaft and studying the tranny a little more from underneath the car, I decided NOT to remove the engine/tranny as a single unit. As you probably know, mechanics of the Corvette world are split on this issue. But my tranny is working way too well to mess with it or its placement, so I'm going to try to install the new engine with the tranny in place. Simply put, it's fewer connections that way. You might consider that as well.

Good luck! We'll swap engine removal war stories next week.

 

You'll want to leave the output yoke in place to keep it from
dripping fluid all over. Even with the tranny drained ... it'll be dripping.

 

I'd pull the drive shaft and while you'll there udgrade to Spicer u-joints.

 

Since you'll have to take the front of the driveshaft off, I'd just remove the rear also. It's only 2 more minutes of work.

I pulled my engine/tranny as a unit. It's so much easier working on them at waist level, rather than on your back with everything an inch from your face.

I've pushed mine in and out of the garage several times this summer. My neighbor came over and thought it wouldn't start when I was working on it one day. He sure got a surprise when I popped the hood...

 

I would definately take the driveshaft out. If you just want to loosen it from the yoke until the trans is out that may make it marginally easier.

I say pull engine and trans as a unit.

 

If you have a Hurst shifter & haven't removed it yet, I've found it easiest to access the shifter bolts when the trans is free from the mount & lower/fwd, with the eng up a bit (like when it first starts to come out). Same way going back in.
Good luck

 

I've pulled my share of engine's in the past. I've always pulled both engine & tranny...but never did a Vette. Most C3's with 4 spds have the x-member welded in. Doesn't that make pulling the tranny tight and have a bad angle?

 

Len, I dropped the RamJet 502 with the 4-speed Muncie into the 70 coupe while it was sitting on the wheels. I had the radiator out(of course!) and the top two bolts on each side of the core support out. I pulled the core support forward a little just to get a little more room. I had the drive shaft out cause I wanted to replace the u-joints anyway. Still worried about twisting somthing in that drivetrain with that 502. The key though is having a rotator setup on the cherry picker so you can change the angle of the engine/transmission as you slide it in. Worth every penney you may have to spend to get one!!!

Good Luck

Bullshark

P.S It's a two man job and whatever you do, don't drop that engine on that pretty car!

 

Thanks. I guess I'll pull the driveshaft too, althought this will be only the 2nd time I've removed a driveshaft and the first was about 20 years ago with my brother-in-law. \

I read in one of the manuals though this:

Is #2 above correct?

 

Ah, the Chilton manual. #2 is just to keep the driveshaft from turning while you put some torque on the bolts. Like I said, I lowered one side of the car so a rear wheel took some weight and the driveshaft wouldn't turn.

Oops, my mistake! Read it again and I think that's for something else. Maybe to keep the rear diff in the proper position? Not sure why that's important though...

 

I'll be glad just to get the drive-shaft & engine out tomorrow.

I do have a leveler.

 

I just finished installing my 383 with the 4-speed attached, the radiator still installed, and the driveshaft in place. This was with one other car buddy helping and a leveler on the hoist.
I have always removed and reinstalled my engine with the transmission. On a 4-speed car you need someone to reach under the car and help the tailshaft up onto the cross member, but it's no big deal. I removed the radiator the first time, but this time I did it with the radiator in place and a piece of plywood protecting the fins, just in case.
Jeff

 

i have always pulled engine and tranny together on my camaros,
when i pulled the engine on the vette earlier this year i decided to pull it on it's own,
i thought it was easier,
i pulled the engine out of the camaro first, then the vette, then put the camaro engine in the vette, all on my own (in a day) with a tripod hoist, no leveller, outside on my gravel driveway,,,,and to top it,,,it was a miserable UK day,
have fun however you do it,,,,,,,
but take care,
neil

 

The engine and transmission are out of my 1968. The driveshaft is still attached to the differential. The driveshaft is not touching the ground. It's supported by the crossmember element that supports the differential itself. I can easily push the car around. As the shaft rotates, it has scratched off some paint. This is the second time I've removed the engine/transmission. No problem pushing the car around with the driveshaft flopping around a little bit.

I wouldn't be interested in talking apart the U-joint where it attaches to the differential. It looks like you'd have to remove the support brace from the differential first. I'd only want to disassemble the U-joint using the C-clamp tool and it looks like that requires the support brace to be removed. Yes I think you could hammer the U-joint appart without removing the brace, but I'd prefer to use the C-clamp tool.

I remove the engine/bellhousing/transmission as a single unit. After you've removed all of the other stuff connected to the engine/trasmission, it's easy to remove as a complete unit, only four bolts hold in the entire engine/bellhousing/transmissiion - two engine mount bolts and two transmission/crossmember bolts. To remove it you need a tilt bar on the hoist. Pull out the engine/bellhousing/transmission over the radiator frame. I had to let air out of my front tires to lower the car a little to clear the radiator frame. I removed the entire engine, etc by myself. It only took a few hours. I do have an air powered socket wrench and that speeds up disassembly.

PS. If you have a manual transmission, the shifter and linkages stay in the car. The shifter is attached to it's own crossmember bracket. When you put the engine...transmission back in, the linkages should go right back in with no/little adjustment needed.

 

How do you keep the trans (auto) from leaking all over the place?