Engine is out, but will be going in soon. I bought a transmission jack this morning to help jack up trans along with engine and k member. (also for future clutch installs)
My question is where/how to support tubular k member so I dont jack up the powder coating. Any ideas? I am pretty sure it involves some wood on top of jack, but want to keep it balanced.

I pulled engine from top BTW, but with the k member swap I decided from bottom would be best for the install.

This build has taken a very long time, because of 101 reasons, but it seems the project has gained momentum, and it will be running soon. Here are a couple pics .

 

Is that k-member resting on a furniture dolly? If so, that's what you want to put the engine onto with the trans. I've dropped my own engine twice, my dad's once, and my buddy's once now.

What you want to do is mount the engine and transmission to the kframe, and spin the kframe 90 degrees on that engine dolly. Have the kframe supported by one side where the castors are and then slap a 2x4 under the other side's castors to support the transmission. Slide the whole assembly under the car, and then use a cherry picker / engine hoist to lower the entire car down onto the k-frame.

Here's a ton of pics:
http://meissenation.com/projectlt1/Album7.htm
http://meissenation.com/projectlt1/Album36.htm
http://meissenation.com/projectlt1/Album43.htm
http://meissenation.com/projectlt1/Album48.htm


We've also sat the kframe a little bit further back and then used a standard jack with a 2x4 ontop of the jack to balance the trans.

 

Ok that makes sense. I was looking to lift engine up, but your actually lowering the car down and then putting bolts in. So are the k member bolts accessible easily on each side of dolly?

OBTW thanks for the links, pictures help alot.

 

just make sure the engine is up high enough off the ground top start with, the car can't go all the way to the ground. I stack a few 2x4 on the furniture dolly. It works great with another dolly under the tranny. You should have it in in about 30 min.

 

Yessir - we always lower the car straight down onto the k member while it's on the dolly. When you're about 2 inches away from touching, you'll want to have someone on each side that wiggles the dolly so you get the two locating pins (one per side) on the kmember into the respective holes on the frame - they're just behind the forward most bolt hole. Hopefully your tubular one still has that pin.... if not you'll just have a little harder time lining up the bolts.

Also, remember when you're lining it all up that the engine hugs the passenger side - driver's side has the steering knuckle linkage. The first two times we always tried to put the engine "in the center" according to the intake manifold... and each time we'd have to scoot it to the passenger side when it started coming down.

 

Excellent info! I am ready to do this now. And yes the locating tabs are on the tubular k.

I am debating pulling the harness from engine bay and attaching to engine prior to installation. As of now the compressor and accessory bracket are still in the bay also.

I basically initially disassembled and removed from top and left harness and a/c in bay. Am I going about this the hard way? I am trying to keep the a/c connected, but if it is going to make a world of difference I can remove it. It is just a hot **** in Houston, the a/c is like gold here.

 

A trick you can use is to buy some long bolts with the same thread as those mounting the K-member to the car and cut the heads off. Then thread them into the bolt holes finger tight. These wil act as guides and make it a little easier. Once everthing is close you can pull these out and the cradle bolts will just twist right in....

 

I think it'd be personal preference on whether to yank the harness out of the car and hook everything up to the engine prior to putting it back in or if you would rather hook it all up when the engine is in place. Personally, I'd probably do it while the engine is out and you have the room to fully walk around the engine and trans to plug in whatever necessary connections.

If you do decide to go this route, you'll have the obvious stuff in the engine bay to disconnect as well as there's 4 connections on the inside passenger kick panel area. If you remove the kick panel - the long one that runs along the seat - there's like 3-4 modules right there that have plugs going to them from the engine harness and then there's a little 2 wire plug for hvac. If you remove the PCM and have someone gently tug on the harness from the engine bay while you're in the car looking at all the wires, you'll see what ones need to come out. Shbox has an awesome picture with the harness and where it all goes: http://shbox.com/1/harness.htm

That's an awesome idea - I'll have to remember that with all the engine pulls I keep doing. I swear about the only thing I'm willing to do with the engine still in is replace the oil... everything else it's just damned easier to drop the whole kframe out

 

What I did was to build a wooden stand for the k-member and with a jack roll the engine and tranny back under the car(a jack under the tranny too). Like so...




Once in position, I lowered the body close to the engine, then set the body on jackstands. Then I put a chain across the heads and pulled the engine to the body with the cherry picker(jacking up the tranny as I go up with the cherry picker). Like so...





This way you can easily swing the engine to the alignment pins and put the bolts into the K-member when the entire assembly starts to lift up on the body.

 

Reading these things make me glad my roommate owns a shop with 3 lifts. Once I get around to pulling the motor, it should happen rather quickly.

 

Its not the end of the world here at home with the hoist.

 

Definitely not - the cherry picker is just as easy.