Lessons learned - elephant ears

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Uncle Bob

Uncle Bob

Shiny paint causes stress.
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I wondered if anyone has any tips or lessons learned about pulling an engine/trans that's on elephant ears?

My current plan is to stick a piece of wood between the center link and oil pan, drop the transmission with the engine sitting on the wood/centerlink. I will be alone so it will be coming out in two pieces. The ears look like they're bowed backward so I don't think I'm the first person to do that on this car.

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Then, only one side of the frame is notched for clearance, so I might have to pull the water pump to get it out. Before I take any engine mounting points loose, I will hang it from the cherry picker with as little pre-load on the chain as possible. I don't want things pulling apart, but I also need to hold onto it while I'm bolting it after the trans is out or it might tip back and crash the firewall.

I'm mostly unsure if taking the water pump off is the right way to go or not.

Photo of the side that's not notched.
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Photo of the notched side.
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It might be the thing will just come right up out of there if I jog it to one side until it's above the frame.

I'm grateful for any tips and/or advice :thumbsup:
 
Take the engine out first. Floor jack under the front of the trans Pan. Remove the water pump and ears. Then it’s easier than ever because the engine can come forward without those mounts on the K frame.
 
Hood on or hood off?
Maybe consider lifting the rear of the car and pull 'em together.
How deep is your pan? The Lakewood and a deep 971 pan is really tight on my Barracuda between the firewall and the K-member. A 402 is a non-issue.
Zip the crank pulley off.
Don't forget something to plug the tail housing.
 
My suggestion is pull the w/p and elephant ears off, then pull engine and transmission together, providing you have enough room/height to do it
 
Daves69 said:
Hood on or hood off?
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I think I can get it out with the hood on. I might have to recruit the wife to lend a hand if it has to come off.

Daves69 said:
Maybe consider lifting the rear of the car and pull 'em together.
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I will do that even though I'm dropping the trans out the bottom because the rear end is already on stands.

Daves69 said:
How deep is your pan?
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It's just a chrome-plated factory pan. Don't remember which number is on it, but it's got one stamped into it that might be 402.

Daves69 said:
Don't forget something to plug the tail housing.
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Yes, that will happen when I drop the driveshaft.

At this point that's all that's left to remove after I mop up the mess draining the trans left me. I try to keep it as clean as I can since the car is only on ramps (front) and stands (rear).
 
67mprfan said:
My suggestion is pull the w/p and elephant ears off, then pull engine and transmission together, providing you have enough room/height to do it
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I would need a helper. It's not that hard to drop the trans out the bottom.

I did one in one piece before without help. It was a nightmare. Imagine a cherry picker straight up in the air, the tilter all the way forward, and me unable to lift the tail shaft over the rad support and pull the picker back. By the time I got to that point I was too tired and frustrated to stop and think so I just kept pressing on. IIRC the tilter had started stripping threads at that point (learned about Acme threads from this) and I did not trust it at all.

IMO it takes at least 2 people to do it in one piece, and I've found that for me, expecting help with these things is a sure fire way to be disappointed.
 
One thing that I finally accepted here recently is, using a lift plate that bolts to the carb flange is much easier and much better than using a chain. I never trusted them until I started hanging out at my buddies race engine shop. I've helped him load dozens of motors in his customers truck beds using the lift plate. When I brought mine to run it on the dyno a few weeks ago, it had a chain from where I loaded it still on it. He got a socket and was taking the chain off and I must have had "that look" on my face. To understand how funny what he said is....I'm 66 and he's 81. He just grinned and told me to come on into this century and stop being a grumpy ol stuck in my ways old fart, and just use a plate! I bought a plate he had laying around to use at home! If he ain't scared to load a $30K 24 hours at Daytona motor with one, my junk will be just fine.
 
JDMopar said:
One thing that I finally accepted here recently is, using a lift plate that bolts to the carb flange is much easier and much better than using a chain. I never trusted them until I started hanging out at my buddies race engine shop. I've helped him load dozens of motors in his customers truck beds using the lift plate. When I brought mine to run it on the dyno a few weeks ago, it had a chain from where I loaded it still on it. He got a socket and was taking the chain off and I must have had "that look" on my face. To understand how funny what he said is....I'm 66 and he's 81. He just grinned and told me to come on into this century and stop being a grumpy ol stuck in my ways old fart, and just use a plate! I bought a plate he had laying around to use at home! If he ain't scared to load a $30K 24 hours at Daytona motor with one, my junk will be just fine.
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I bought my first lift plate recently to lift an engine but found out the three of the carb studs had helicoils and the other needed one too, so I just used a chain. The plate is bolted to the top of this engine though and I will use it this time.
 
I dropped the trans last night with a few pieces of 3/4" pine between the pan and center link holding the engine up. Wood is turned so the center link lays across the grain.

The trick is always how to get it out with it sitting on the trans jack. When I was younger I'd just rassle it off the jack onto the floor, now I'll just wait until the engine's out and pick the whole car up off from it with the picker hooked to the K frame.

Two bolts to go if it will come out with the hood on, 6 if not.

Still wondering if I can get it out with the hood on. If nobody knows for certain, I'll just go ahead and pull it off now and save the hassle of running into it and needing to figure out how to deal with that while the engine's on the hook.
 
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I had a helper so we took the hood off. Engine is on the floor now. I removed the two bolts at the frame and shifted it over as we lifted and it came right out with the ears attached.
 
They do look bent. I wonder what caused that? .......and why would you even attempt to pull it with the hood on? There was another thread here somewhere about somebody doing that. I never have understood that. Just mark it and you can put it right back where it was. Just seems to me that's trying to make life more difficult.
 
Uncle Bob said:
I had a helper so we took the hood off. Engine is on the floor now. I removed the two bolts at the frame and shifted it over as we lifted and it came right out with the ears attached.
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Good. IMO it's always easier that way.
 
RustyRatRod said:
They do look bent. I wonder what caused that?
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It sure is weird. At first I thought someone had let the engine hang on them but it's sort of an arcing bend not straight back like I would expect from that.

They're garage art now or will be as soon as I disassemble that lump.

RustyRatRod said:
.......and why would you even attempt to pull it with the hood on? There was another thread here somewhere about somebody doing that. I never have understood that. Just mark it and you can put it right back where it was. Just seems to me that's trying to make life more difficult.
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Yeah I didn't understand it either and had never heard of it until I came here.

I typically don't even mark them, getting the hood back on in the right place never seemed that hard to me. It can only move front to back, there's no side-to-side adjustment. Just don't slam it and whack the latch into the rad support or grille. :thumbsup:
 
I would pull my engine and leave the trans. had a couple Long bolts that I cut the heads off and would thread into the block through the water pump housing. then pull the rest and housing and let the engine rest on those two studs one the hoist was starting to lift the engine. I could slide the motor plate off and pull the engine easier.
after installing and pulling it that way a few times. I wondered why I spent all the time, money and hassle of ever mounting it any other way.
 
vitamindart said:
I would pull my engine and leave the trans. had a couple Long bolts that I cut the heads off and would thread into the block through the water pump housing. then pull the rest and housing and let the engine rest on those two studs one the hoist was starting to lift the engine. I could slide the motor plate off and pull the engine easier.
after installing and pulling it that way a few times. I wondered why I spent all the time, money and hassle of ever mounting it any other way.
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Now that it's out I see that they're pretty easy to deal with so I understand their use.

The thing that I really didn't like about these is the engine sat way too high in the front, as in you could visually see it running downhill toward the back. Engine went bad, so out they come.
 
Uncle Bob said:
Now that it's out I see that they're pretty easy to deal with so I understand their use.

The thing that I really didn't like about these is the engine sat way too high in the front, as in you could visually see it running downhill toward the back. Engine went bad, so out they come.
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if the engine is to high in the front, it sounds like they mounted them to high. mine sat the same as it did on the factory mounts.
 
vitamindart said:
if the engine is to high in the front, it sounds like they mounted them to high.
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So you would need to trim the ears to make it work, or move the brackets down? The brackets were bolted to the inside of the frame rails, pushed up against the flange where the rail comes together. That seems like the right place for them to be because it gives a positive point of reference.
 
This is one of those questions where the answer depends totally on your situation. What tools you have, what equipment you have, what kind of help you have, etc. My last shop had an overhead crane so the way I pulled engines was totally different than how most people did it. I could pull the engine and transmission out very quickly with the tools I had.

In your case your best bet is a lift plate (tilt plate) on the carb with your engine hoist. Use the hoist to hold the engine while you unbolt the water pump and remove the ears and then lift it all up out of there.

With my shop crane I would just lift the front of the Duster up in the air and slide the engine underneath and then lower the car down over the engine. I could put the engine and front suspension on the car by myself in half a day.

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The elephant ears are bent because of the ping pong action of the engine during acceleration and deceleration. In other words, the back and forth movement. I have a limiter on each side of my engine which has a motor plate to stop this. There was a post on here about this action, I just can't find it right now.
 
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