Mordgier

So long story short - replacing a 5VZ in a 97 manual.

New engine is ready to go in this weekend...but one thing really bothers me.

It was a huge pain in the ass to separate the engine from the trans. The trans input shaft would just not easily separate from the engine. In the end we ended up simply rocking the crank pulley back and forth to get the shaft moving and this made the engine slide off...

So this brings me to the question - how do I get the engine back ON the shaft? I do not have a tranny jack that lets me adjust the tilt of the tranny or a good solid way of setting a specific angle when lowering the engine.

At this point the plan is to try my luck and see if with some fresh spline grease it'll slide right on and failing that, move the tranny back and reattach it after the engine is in place.

Suggestions? Search is unhelpful when it comes to reinstalling...

Man4God

I haven't done this personally so take it for what it's worth, but perhaps you can drop the transmission to the floor and reassemble both as a unit. Then install from the top.

Stu Pidasso

I placed a wooden crate under my transmission. I then put a floor jack on that and jacked it up until the transmission touched the firewall/transmission tunnel. It is important to note here that I lifted the trans as close to the edge of the bellhousing as possible. Then When I lifted my motor to drop it in, I used a load leveler on my engine crane. This allowed me to tilt the engine so that the back side of it was tilted downwards. By doing this with both the trans and the motor at the same angle it made it possible to use the weight of the motor coming down to push the motor and trans together. We just made sure to have it pretty close to lined up, and paid attention to where the dowel pins were on the bellhousing in relation to the back of the block. It was really easy. I had it from the shop floor to bolted in on the motor mounts in 35 minutes. This was my first time doing it and I had a helper. Use a light ammount of grease on the splines because you do not want that to sling out on the clutch disc or pressure plate for any reason at all. I just put enough so that it was shiny. My engine was a real pain to get apart from the transmission as well. I have a 22re in an 86 4runner. I also have a large stinger on my front bumper and about 6" of lift sitting on 38's. It was not the easiest set up to drop a motor in with your basic engine crane. I have no idea why people make it as big a deal as it is.

j2the-e

Some long bolts with the heads cut off installed in the engine where the bellhousing bolts go will help line it up. Use one on each side

Mordgier

Yeah read about that trick - going to be cutting some heads off tonight. I planned to use 4 to ensure that it was lined up and then inserting 2 long bolts to tighten the two together.

Mordgier

It's done. Well - the engine is in and mated to the trans - lots of wiring still left to do and all the belts..

In the end, I did end up having to drop and push back the trans to get the input shaft in smoothly. I kept having trouble with the shaft getting caught on the pressure plate fingers when trying to lower without pushing the trans back. I could get the guide bolts in, but then unless the trans was pushed back, the oil pan would catch on the frame.

What I didn't foresee was that the guide studs were a nightmare to get out. They were only finger tight when I put them in, but once they were inside the tranny getting them out was a bitch. I sawed a slot for a flathead screwdriver, but getting an actual screw driver behind the tranny to loosen them was impossible and really hard to get them out with a flathead 3/8 socket as it kept poping out of the slot.

Not really sure how I would have used the guides differently, it would have been MUCH harder without them. Maybe try to cut them for philips?

ncsugrad2006

This trick is a life saver.