Newbie--first engine pull (1969 Campmobile, 71 dp engine)

[thesamwise4]

Greetings, all.

I spent several hours the other day getting my engine out. Well--almost getting my engine out.

I had trouble getting the last of the engine bolts. It is the upper engine mounting bolt, passenger side.

I tried getting at it from the transmission side of the firewall, but had a terrible time. I can't really see it (except just the very top of it when I look through the rear passenger wheel well back toward the engine), but it felt like it was flush with the case--hence the difficult time I had getting a socket on it.

My mechanic pulled the engine very recently and reinstalled it (twice, actually), so I think it can be done without extraordinary measures.

At the time, it didn't occur to me to try to get at it from the other side (the firewall side).

Is this the answer? I spent nearly an hour trying to get a socket on it and had no luck.

The question then: Do you fine folks have any suggestions for how to remove the passenger side upper engine mounting bolt?

Thanks!

[sped372]

Yep, it's actually a bolt (not a nut) accessed from the under/backside... it's one of the starter bolts. Do you have a service manual? Why're you pulling the engine?

[vdubyah73]

the nut is accessible from the engine compartment. the starter bolt looks like this on the starter side.



Thats why you can't get a wrench on it. The nut should be a 17mm. A Bentley Manual would have saved you a lot of time.

[hambone]

You have to reach around in FRONT of the fan shroud. It's there, but ya gotta do it blind.

[Amskeptic]

Do you fine folks have any suggestions for how to remove the passenger side upper engine mounting bolt?

Before you send in a wrench, locate the nut with your hand. You will be pushing the wrench towards the left side of the car, so get the wrench on sort of pointing towards the voltage regulator and you will have decent leverage. Most 17mm combination wrenches have an offset at the box end, you want the wrench to "bend" towards the front bumper. If for some reason, the wrench seems to bang in to the front tin, you can use the open end which is flat, but do not round the corners of the nut, kay? There *should* be a decent sized washer under the nut. So, just before you can spin the nut right off, go back in and try to feel the washer and get it out towards the nut before you disassemble.

When it comes time to reassemble, you can either have help to hold the keyed bolt in, get a tarry blob of caulkish goop to help hold it in place, or you can delicately try to get the washer and nut on blind whilst pulling the bolt back using a fingernail in one of the threads to keep it indexed to the starter mounting flange. Boy, that's fun.
ColinIt'sAllFun

[thesamwise4]

Ok--thanks for the answers (also the picture, that really helped me to understand what I was messing with).

Why're you pulling the engine?"

I am pulling the engine in preparation for a new transaxle install. My old one started to get really noisy and was popping out of gear while driving.

My new one arrived yesterday. I'm resting my feet on the box right now. I'm very excited to get it in there.

Thanks again for all your help.

I'd guess I'll be writing again in a day or two, but if I don't, have a great Christmas/holiday/whatever you choose to celebrate and a Happy New Year.

[dtrumbo]

I may be too late with this... but since your changing out your transaxle anyway, I think it's INFINITELY easier to remove the engine and transaxle together as one unit. Exchange the transaxle and then re-install as one unit.

Good luck with the new parts!