Warning - ridiculous newbie questions ahead!

I'm about to pull the 351M from my 1978 F-150. Its got a C6 bolted to it, and I'd like to pull the entire assembly w/out having to unbolt the transmission from the engine itself.

Is this a possibility or am I being ridiculous? I've not done the measurements yet, so I figured I'd ask around here before I bothered.

Erin

 

Yes, you can do it easily enough.
You may find it necesary to remove the secondary crossmember, though, to gain enough clearance for the transmission to come out.
The secondary crossmember is the one which goes under the gap between the bell housing and the transmission oil pan. It is bolted to the radius arm supports.

 

Not a big deal, get the radiator out and put a piece of ply in front of the A/C condensor to prevent damage there. Some method to chage the inclination of the eng/trans assembly is a must, a balance bar is nice, a good quality rachet strap will work. I don't recall every having to pull the crossmember, but then again, sometime I do things the hard way . GL

 

depending on your full intentions, I'd suggest removing the front clip. The second crossmember is a major PITA. front clip is slightly less aggravating. my 2 cents.

 

This type of engine removal is done all the time.

In fact, I even did it a couple of times.

Having a balance bar is helpful for doing the necessary tilting.

The only problem I had was my stomach was in the way when trying to slide under the truck to undo the TQ ....and to keep it low enough to allow for getting the engine out over the fenders.

 

Why would you slide under the truck to undo the TQ if you are pulling the motor and trans together?

 

because senility is setting in, and he forgot he was pulling them as a unit?



























wait a minute.....i just had a "senior moment". what the heck were we talking about???

 

I just did that last weekend and it was all cool. Taking the radiator out was a must. I'm a newbie to this too but, have you got everything disconnected yet? Disconnecting the exhaust is the hardest part. The drivers side is easy to reach but make sure you use a high grade steal extension on your rachet or impact wrench when undoing the right one. (We just used three high grade extensions hooked together on an impact wrench, and some WD40)

One thing we did was remove the bracket for the transmission. One bolt holds the bracket onto the crossmember. Just take out the bolt and make the bracket slide over the beam. It's a tight squeeze but it worked for us. After that take the two bolts that hold the bracket to the transmission out, cause the bracket might interfere with the next crossmember, quote might.

One thing that really got us in a pickle was leaving the starter on the engine. That interfered with everything. We had to push everything backwards and take it off. It's easy to put back on afterwards but I'd say do that.

A really nice thing to use is ramps. All we had were two lengths of boards about one foot off the ground. This made everything much easier having the whole truck one more foot higher off the ground. I could sit right up underneath the truck and take everything off that I needed.

A MUST is to drain the Transmission fluid. My friend and I, complete newbies, to make a long story short, didn't. Point being, once that shaft is pulled out and the engine and trans are lifted...thats alot of transmission fluid flowing straight out.

I just graduated so I didn't even know that you just had to remove the shaft from the rear axel by undoing the U-clamps. My friends dad came out and told us that after we just got the bearings out of the front one. A lot less time just doing it that way.

And always remember kids, either run the tank dry or plug your fuel line with a good sized bolt!