[namba209]

I guess I'm about as safety concious as anyone, maybe more so, being brainwashed by the USAF from day one of basic training. On Willit? I destroyed 3 engines prior to the current engine swap. Probably had bad motors from the recyclers to begin with. Anyway, I pulled two of the three out the top, mainly because I didn't have a manual and there was no internet or you folks available. The last time, I pulled it out from the bottom, literally. Either way, it is fairly easy, except for pulling the tranny from under the car without a jack. If you check my photo gallery you'll see what it takes to get the engine/tranny out from under the bottom without a car lift. It was pretty straight forward, jack up the car and put it on jack stands, and pull the driveshaft out. Put the car back on the ground, Hook up a hoist to the engine take the weight off the crossmembers, and drop the engine/tranny to the ground. I used two 2000 lb. straps hooked around the front suspension and lifted the car up high enuff in the front to pull the engine out from under with a come-along. At no time during this operation was I under the car except for pulling the driveshaft, and then it was on all four jackstands with a floor jack under the rear-end and the hoist hooked up to the front suspension. Like I said, I've been brainwashed about safety. I was real leary about hoisting up the front of the car so high, but with the hoist rated at 4000 lbs and a pair of 2000 lb tiedown straps I felt safe enuff, but didn't let the car stay that high too long. I've seen and heard way too many tales of injury and death working on cars that are just too ridiculous during my USAF career. Yeah, I laughed at them when I read about them, but when it gets close to home, it becomes an eye opener, like this one. USN Senior Chief working on a Plymouth wagon, using a bumper jack to pull the drive shaft on an incline, had the tranny in park, emergency brake not set. You see the stage is set for disaster, dropped the dirveshaft, car rolled back, off the jack and crushed his arm and chest. Lotsa hospital time for him. He ended up working with me on light duty for over a year when he got released from the hospital. Yeah, it's scary. Others on this site have had similar instances and are rightfully anal about how they do things. I won't say yeah or nay to how you do it, just do it safe.