3.8 S1 FHC Engine removal question.

[rswaffie]

Hello,
I am getting close to the engine & gearbox removal part of my restoration. I have poured over all the various threads both here and in other forums regarding the process and I will be dropping them onto a trolley, lifting the body and wheeling them out. I know I will need to remove the reaction plate and am comfortable with the process. My question is, once the plate is off, what do I do with the torsion bar brackets that I'm assuming will have the torsion bars located within? Do they just hang there whilst engine is being removed, or do I remove the bars completely? The various threads go straight from plate removal to supporting the engine, support the gearbox and remove the mounts. Once the engine & box are out, I will want to reattach the wheels and push it back into the garage. Do I need to reattach the plate and bars to do this, or will it be ok with just the shocks in place?

[andrewh]

You should have removed tie rods, roll bar link and top ball joints. I would not waste time reconnecting all this plus reaction pkate. Get a dolly or wheel back on engine hoist

[christopher storey]

There is no need to remove the ball joints etc at all. If you follow the workshop manual procedure , relieving the tension of the bolts so as to remove the reaction plate, you can do this without disturbing the suspension at all . People are far too afraid of all this . Just tap the bolts back and use a lever between the two to relieve the tension, and knock the reaction plate off.

[rswaffie]

Thanks for the comments. I don't have anything to put in place of the front wheels so I will look to put them back on for the time being, which means putting the plate back after the engine is out by the sound of it. I will try and take some pics of the process as I go along and post them for reference.

[christopher storey]

Richard : there is no need to put the reaction plate back on to wheel the car around. if you follow the workshop manual directions, once you have knocked off the reaction plate, you leave the bolts in the splined "ears" at the rear of the torsion bars and these bolts resist rotation of the torsion bars. Here is a picture

[rswaffie]

Chris: Excellent - that's just what I was after. Not having played around with torsion bars before, I didn't know if the brackets would impart too much stress on the mounting points without the plate in place. They will only be in place until the irs cage is out and then the body tub and frames will be on a dolly which I am building at the moment.

[mgcjag]

Hi Richard......once your irs out do you then intend to remove the torsion bars....if so it will not be straightforward......normaly you would jack up under the bottom wishbone to relieve the tension, the engine giving you weight to jack against...with the engine removed if you jack up there is no weight so you cannot relieve the tension....so have a think about how you will do it,.... turnbuckles and ratchet straps have been used..

[rswaffie]

Good point. I'm sure I've seen a post where turnbuckles were used so I'll have another look at that option. It would be boring if all this was straightforward

[christopher storey]

I don't agree with Steve's point : what he says may apply when replacing torsion bars, ( you may need some heavy friends to sit on the frames and simulate the engine ) but there is no problem getting torsion bars off - disconnect the dampers jack the car up , discoonect one or other balljoint , allow the wishbones to go down to their fullest extent, and the tension in the bars is relieved

[rswaffie]

I have now managed to get the reaction plate off - thanks for all the tips. I tried the workshop approach without disconnecting the suspension, but I wasn't able to tap the lower of the two bolts back, they wouldn't budge as they were probably still under load. So I disconnected the top wishbone joint, the track rod joint and the roll bar connection, and they both freed up. I could then drop the plate and bolt everything back up.
I can now get stuck into the engine & gearbox drop.