Need help/advice on pulling engine&trans 1964 Pontiac

I'm trying to pull the engine out of my 64 Pontiac and am thinking about leaving the transmission attached. It is real tight between the engine and firewall so I'd only be able to get at them with wrenches. Not what I'd like to do, you know those 1/12th turns are hell on me.

I'm thinking of pulling the bumper, grille and radiator support to get everything out. Am I insane?

Has anyone here pulled an engine this way, done so with a Pontiac like mine, and regretted it? Is there an easier way? If so, wanna come over and show me it?

 

Get an extention for your 3/8" drive wobbly sockets. It's a lot easier, assuming the car has auto. trans.

 

It would be faster and easier to just pull them out the front as long as the stuff in your way comes apart ok. I know what your saying about the 1/12 turns. Good luck

 

Hi,
I pull engines out of Pontiacs all the time. I think you are indeed doing it the hard way. No need to pull both together.
You didn't mention what model Pontiac it is. The mid and and full size were quite different that year as it was the first year for a conventional torque converter in a mid size and the last year without a conventional converter in a full size.......or, do you have a stick shift?.
good luck either way,

Steve Barcak
www.Pontiacheaven.org

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Also hosting- 7th annual Nostalgia drags, show and swap coming Sunday April 5, 2009 to Speedworld. Phoenix, Az
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You can pull both but must remove the hood. The easy way to separate them is a flrx socket and long extension 2 feet at least and the tourque converter bolts come out first with wrenches..jobob

 

It's a Catalina, slim jim.

PS - Do you really have a Poncho hemi? Thought they were legend until I saw an old ad.

 

all you need is good help...

(unfortunately, all i had was plowboy, nick&nick, johnny sparkle and superfriend mark)

 

as you can see, we took off the hood, starter and fan. cutting off as much of the exhaust as possible helped too...

 

Yeah, I'm alone with all this beer... What's a guy to do?

Anyway, I'm trying to preserve the exhaust since I need to have it road worthy by the end of January.

 

mine was mostly rotten, but it would be even easier with the flanges unbolted...

 

Aye theres the rub. They are a stone cold bitch to get at. I've been taking the PS and AC out along with the radiator and related stuff like you did.

 

What is wrong with her little motor? I thought she was a runner??

-Abone.

 

Never did a slim jim, but splitting the motor and trans does sound easier. Might be the time and place to try out a set of those ratcheting flex head box wrenches everyone's selling these days, just make sure you buy good ones (yeah I know, oxymoron) with fine toothed ratchets.

 

I suppose it all depends on what you hope to accomplish. I took the entire front end off of my 56 Pontiac BUT it was a part of the plan to start with. The car is very solid but had sat outside with half the front end already off for awhile. As you can see the frame was rusty and the suspension had 50 years worth of crud build up. And my tranny leaked pretty heavily.

Once all was unbolted, it was a breeze getting everything out in one piece. My car was a bit of a PITA because of the way the engine/tranny goes together otherwise anyways.



The two are apart here but they came out together.



Once the front end is off, you can really get stuffed cleaned up.

 

Motor is fine, tranny took a shit. I am replacing with a TH400.

 

I've pulled a number of engines out of '61 big Pontiacs (pretty much the same engine compartment as your '64), and always took out the engine and transmission as an assembly. If you hook up the pull chain right it's not a big deal - it will hang with the rear of the transmission low, but just lift that up by hand to get it over the radiator core support.

Remove the hood and pull the radiator, of course.

 

There is an eye at the front of the engine from the factory and it will probably get a grade 8 bolt and run that on the intake somewhere. The radiator is already out and the PS pump is out of the way and AC pump is out of the car.

Have you used one of those plates that attaches to the carb base on the intake? I don't know about those, those four little bolts holding up all that weight? I guess it is no different than using two fatter bolts.

I realize that to some, taking an engine out ought to be elementary. Perhaps I think too much about stuff but a 64 Catalina with all the bells and whistles ain't the same as a 64 Bel Air with a 283 and nothing else. I've never unbolted so many bolts in one exercise.

 

Take it out, complete motor/tranny assembly, reverse of how they put it in. Hood off, RAdiator out, suitable hoist disconnect and lift.

 

Yes, I get the basics.

It was more of a Pontiac thing, like what did you do different or what works best?

 

There should be threaded holes on the front and back ends of each cylinder head. I bolt the lifting chain to the front of one head and to the back of the other head.

 

Thanks Stuart. Any other jewels will be appreciated.

 

i did the same cross chained front to back. just gotta keep inching it forward as you go up with the hoist.. bout the zaust i unbolted off the block and flange and it was free once i got the ngine up a little bit.. thing came out real easy just remember to drain or plug that trans or youll have a mess... just like i did

 

Hi Pitts, nice to see you are here too.

 

If all you want to do is change the tranny why not just change the tranny? Why go to all the work of pulling the engine?

Just curious.

 

lifes too short to drink that cheap ass beer dude. would you like me to send you some rolling rock ? ?

 

Sadly, I do not have a lift.

 

we get rolling rock here, i would like some iron city tho...

 

I've had the engine/trans out of my 64 Catalina 4 or 5 times. I've always pulled both together. The only time the trans came out by itself, a trans shop pulled the trans and left the engine hanging by the two front motor mounts for about a week. Only later did I find the mounts broken.

Anyhoo, the first couple of times I pulled the set with the chain hooked to that front loop you mentioned and the back of the opposite side head (removing the fan and radiator, of course). The engine has a tendency to twist a bit doing it that way, but if you go slowly and put a floor jack under the tailshaft of the trans, you can eek it out past the radiator support and the firewall. The last couple of times, though, I have used a load leveler and it eases the operation significantly.

 

Did R&R for a transmission shop '68-'71 ... if you couldn't snatch a slim jim out of a '61-'64 Pontiac or Olds in half an hour, you learned or found another job. And we used jack stands & a big bumper lift air jack, not a hoist. If you remove the crossmember & drop the back of the trans, the bellhousing bolts aren't that tough to get at. Loosen the exhaust flanges, pull the dist. cap, & nothing gets hurt if the engine mounts are good - if it breaks one replace 'em, they were worn out anyway.

 

we just removed the 327 out of my brothers parts car and found it was easier to pull the motor and trans out seperate, had a bitch of a time first go trying to get it out in one.