Engine Is Out

[shadetree77]

My wife and I successfully pulled the engine and trans. out of our '53 Manhattan yesterday. Not too difficult. Took about 30 minutes of slow, steady work. In retrospect, I wish I would have pulled off the center bumper bracket. I removed the bumper but left the bracket on. My cherry picker kept getting caught on that bracket and I ended up having to let the air out of the tires to lower the car and give us another inch of clearance. But then the leg of the cherry picker got caught on the A-Arm on the drivers side and it was quite difficult to pull the whole thing forward. We finally got it though. Lessons learned and an overall success. Here are a few pictures I took.

[joefrazer]

I see some empty wall space. You need more signs!

[84RabbitGTI]

Turning the steering wheel all the way to the left lets the motor slip out without hitting the steering rods.  I found this out the hard way by putting a hole in the oil pan.

[shadetree77]

Jim, I think I've got just about every flat spot in the garage covered. Not counting the garage doors! Lol. What I really need though is a KF sign. All that signage and not even a single KF sign to be found. Hopefully, that'll change soon. I'm supposed to be picking up one of the reproduction flange mounted dealer signs from Mike Barker when I go see him soon. He ordered one for me. I'd love to have an original but those things go for a LOT OF DOUGH. Maybe later on.

We did get caught up on the steering arms a bit on the way out. I pulled on it once or twice and wondered why it wasn't popping out. My wife crawled under and saw it was hitting the arms. I increased the angle a bit more with the load leveler and cranked the picker up a few more notches and it cleared them. Luckily, I didn't yank on it hard enough to pop a hole in the pan. That definitely would have tainted my victory. Speaking of which, I HIGHLY recommend a load leveler if anyone decides to do this job. I don't know how I would have gotten that big ole' sucker out of there without being able to angle it with the leveler.

[brian.b]

Very nice pics...and is that a 460 i see against the wall,,,

[shadetree77]

Thanks Brian. That would be a low mileage 400 from my first car, a mint condition '77 T-Bird Landau Edition. Some little 16 year old twerp pulled out in front of me one day and I parked that T-Bird in his driver door. Needless to say, frame was bent up and car was totaled. I stripped all of the parts and crushed the rest. Plan to build a hot rod some day and stick that motor in there. 

[brian.b]

Sweet,,,,ill bet its been very tempting since you have the 226 out

[shadetree77]

Lol, don't think the thought hasn't crossed my mind!! Especially since I busted the exhaust manifold on the 226 yesterday. While it's tempting I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep the Kaiser all original. I'm saving that 400 for a project I have in mind. I want a 48-50 Ford F-1 truck to put that in.