I know I'm going to get hammered for this, but anyway, here's my story........last weekend I decided it was time to install the freshly rebuilt 1600cc engine back into the (van with a 'new' eBay gearbox)....... I anticipated a fairly simple job as the engine was already positioned on a motorbike jack, so in theory I could just slide under, raise, attach the 4 bolts, add the rear support and hey presto! How wrong was I! Trying to manhandle the engine on a jack singlehanded is a tricky operation. Furthermore, once aligned, the transmission was at a different angle to that of the engine (partly because of the driveway, partly due to the motorbike jack I was using) - I could only get the bottom studs part way in. After much cursing and swearing (and battered hands plus sore back and more choice words), I decided to pull the transmission back out. I was so frustrated, my head were fully in the red mist, I tipped the engine forward (using a cushion for protection) and dropped the gearbox vertically onto the back of the engine. Despite moving the flywheel to get the female part of the engine to marry with the male gearbox, I couldn't get the gearbox shaft to fully drop down onto the engine (possibly a rusty shaft), so I used the studs /bolts to bring the pair together. Then I had the game to get the pair back in. It took some time, but finally I got there! I've not made any connections to see if the engine will work - You will find out by monitoring eBay. Feel free to lambaste me. My Sunday was spent relaxing with aching joints and a few glasses of beer.
Its not recommended to wind it in on the studs/bolts, but it probably worked. I suppose you can snap corners off the engine castings if you try too hard. You could have used a second jack to lift up the front end of the gearbox to straighten it all up. You should only have had to rotate the crankshaft a bit to get the splines to line up with the clutch plate. The other possibility was that the clutch was not quite aligned, but if you didnt touch the clutch while the engine was out, it should have stayed put. Its probably why I will be putting the gearbox in the bus then bring the engine up to it separately, as sometimes it goes in easily and other times it is quite hard, and having the bus to push against is useful.
As an aside, it is worth putting at least a general county/major town area in your profile, so we know roughly where you are, somebody down the road might be able to pop by and offer some help, or at least advice.
Should come to Techenders as it's just down the road. Next one is early 6-8th May 2022 https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/to...1&share_fid=5720&share_type=t&link_source=app
I’m on the east side of Leicester if you need a hand, not saying I know everything but another set of eyes and hands
