Hot Rods 53 Chevy motor and transmission removal

Pulling 53 Chevy car 235 and automatic transmission . Can we pull it all together or do we need to separate?

 

do you plan to remove the front sheet metal?

 

Try it and see?

 

The motor and transmission together is gonna be very heavy. If you're trying to remove them together, I would take the front sheet metal off like squirrel mentioned

 

Leaving sheet metal on. Guess we gonna have to separate. Thanks

 

remove the grille, radiator, radiator support, bumper and front pan. you don't even need to remove the hood. prop the hood up as high as it can go with a big stick. best to use one of those engine puller deals with the crank on it so you can tilt the motor.

 

the front sheet metal removal is a pain because of the hood springs, and all those old wires....but usually makes life a lot easier.

 

Old custom

 

well... I can't think of any old cars where removing the motor and trans would not be easier with no front sheet metal, but removing and replacing the sheet metal makes the whole project more difficult, not to mention possible chips and damage to the pieces along with getting all the gaps correct when you put it back together

 

That's exactly how I did it

 

As usual, getting the whole story about the project affects our answers. Always a good idea to lay it all out in the first post!

is it the original iron Powerglide, or something adapted to the engine?

 

Original 53 power glide

 

53-54 Chevy you should be able to tie the hood way up. Rope to hood ornament over the top to the rear bumper. Take radiator out cross bar then the drive train. Use a good cherry picker.

 

I pulled a 51 engine with its original powerglide still attached. The hood was on and pulled high up and out of the way. The front clip stayed on. The radiator and cross tube was out. I dropped in a crate 350 with a 200 4R attached with the same situation. No need to pull the front clip. It is doable.

 

It may be doable, but on my 51 I couldn’t get the tailshaft to clear the trans x member without the engine and trans being wedged against the firewall. I cut the cross member where the trans mounts and it came out. If I had a helper to help slide it forward it might have cleared. But it was too heavy for me to move it around much by myself.

 

We left the transmission in. We did take all day. Didn’t know torque converter had 6 bolts .

 

I can remember helping separate one of those under the car back in the mid 1960's and it wasn't fun. Putting the engine back in after it was rebuilt wasn't fun either.

 

No, the standard shift cars are much easier.

 

Hardest part in engine swapping these cars are removing/mounting the hoodsprings...

 

^ Use washers in the coils, close the hood until the springs are free. For new springs, rig them up on a floor jack, stretch them and install washers, install on car, open hood fully...attempt to find where some of the washers rolled off to