Pulling the drivetrain

The nose is off and all external fittings detached. A previous owner had added bolt-on fittings to make the upper front crossbar removable, but never had actually cut it; a few seconds with a reciprocating saw fixed that! It took several evenings of work to get to this point.

I tried to keep all the hardware organized by storing it in plastic zip-lock bags, labelled and stored with the relevant parts.

Engine bay as seen from passenger side.

Taper pin connects shift linkage to shifter mechanism on the gearbox. The manual says you can pull it by moving the stop nut to the other side and tightening it down, drawing out the pin. That didn't work on mine -- threads may have been stripped -- so I just tapped it out with a mallet.

Next I had to take a multi-hour "break" to assemble the engine hoist I had bought this afternoon at Advance Auto Parts. It came in three big (and heavy) boxes, plus another for the load leveler.

The hoist was made in China and required a lot of assembly. The wheels were very poorly made (I had to file two to get them to fit, and bore out the center hole in a third to get it to fit on its bolt) and a few washers were the wrong size, but basically it went together fairly smoothly. It was exhausting work, though, because of the sheer weight of the pieces.

The hoist is assembled and we're ready to go...