I went to pull the engine I bought yesterday. It is a 235 Powerglide belair. I devoted six hours to it until the owner of the junkyard told me he had to leave so I had to go. It is the first closed drive engines I have ever attempted to pull. At first I unhook all the lines, hoses and removed all of the bellhousing bolts. Tried to pull it and nothing. So I disconnected the transmission linkages, mount, etc. Tried to pull it and nothing. I need to get this engine out. Am I missing anything? I got the bellhousing bolts under the panel on the interior. Any advice would be useful. Thanks John
Take off the big nut on the tailshaft that holds the trans to the torque tube. There's about 6-8" of the drive shaft that extends into the trans tail shaft, so you'll have to pull the engine/ trans forward. But once it clears, you should be golden. Did you unbolt the trans mount? Just trying to think of possible things that might be the problem. There's only 2 bolts on the engine and 2 on the trans that hold everything in. Step back and take a look at everything, I'm sure that it's something simple.
I unscrewed the nut that looks like a mason jar lid and pryed out the ball, but that would only budge about two or three inches. I could see a U-jouint? but there was no way of getting that apart with the space that I had. I the transmission isn't hooked up to anything but the engine somehow. I know its going to be something stupid like a cable, but to the life of me I could not find a damn thing. I took off the motor mounts connected to the engine, but not the mounts on the framerail. Do I need to slide the motor and transmission straight out to disconnect it from the torque tube?
If you're pulling just the motor, triple check you've got all the junk unbolted, then try to move the motor straight forward to get the input shaft out of the clutch disc. If you're getting the trans, too... you've gotta get the torque tube loose like mentioned above. When in doubt, saw the fucker. "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world (235.)" -Archimedes
I had the cutting wheel ready to go, but the old man said that if I wanted to saw anything I would need to buy the rest of the car. The six foot metal rod didn't work either. Maybe if I waste another one of the owners saturday's he'll let me start cutting on it.
it might be the clutch disc binding up on the splines of the tranny input shaft, either from being worn from years of use or misalignment from the weight of the motor.trans on it without support. make sure you got some support under the motor and tranny and pry, try rotating the crankshaft back and forth a bit while prying.
Torque tube hanging up. Speedo cable. Shift linkage (2) Clutch linkage. Wire harness. Fuel pipe BATTERY OR ENGINE TO FRAME GROUND STRAP!
Don't worry about it....The yard owner probably stayed around 5 minutes after you left and finished pulling it and hawked it on eBay already..
235 bellhousings DO NOT come off like what you are used to. the trans is held on to the bell housing by 4 bolts. the bellhousing has 4 bolts behind the flywheel (has to come out first) and 2 outside (you got them already). you have to either a> pull the trans, then flywheel, then bellhousing or b> pull the whole unit, two motor mount bolts, two trans mount bolts, and all the linkage. the exhaust could be hanging up. the engine/trans combo is near 800 lbs. a 6 ft bar wont do shit. you need a BIG cherry picker or a forklift. stovebolts dont move without ALOT of help. you'll pop a nad before you get it 2" without help.
I got the big daddy cherry picker, 6ft pry bar, and the popped nut and still nuthin. I think I need to cut the frame motor mounts in order to slide it forward, but I don't have the $500 the guy wants for the rest of the car so I can cut into it. John
I was actually afraid of that because while I was working on pulling the motor he was rummageing through the glove box and found a notebook detailing all the work put into the motor before he got it. He tried to pump up the price a little after that. I noticed a few early 216's and 235's next to a vespa car? so I wrote down the numbers on the block and head. John
There is a 49-53 Chev shop manual online at The Old Car Manual project page. Here is the start of the section on Engine removal - it should be pretty much the same for a '54 ... http://chevy.tocmp.com/1949_53shop/06engine/6_030.HTM
53 Sled is right...there are 4 bolts INSIDE the bellhousing behind the flywheel...These have to be pulled in order to unbolt the engine from the tranny. Did you buy the tranny?? If so, just pull the whole thing together. It's two mounts on the engine, two on the tranny. Clear the linkage, plumbing, grounds, and she should pull right out. Ran across this unboltin' the same engine out of a '57 to swap into a '54. You're going to have to pull the 4 bolts that mount the tranny to the bellhousing, then SLIDE either the engine or the tranny away from each other. It'd be easier to unbolt the tranny and slide it back. The motor mounts will fubar everything up if you try to go the other way.
unless this thing was wrecked horribly, you dont have to cut anything. If it went in, it can come out. That PG weighs 400 pounds itself. pull it out as a unit and deal with it outside.
If this is a Power Glide car, there are not four bolts holding the bellhousing to the block. On a manual trans. car, there are. A Power Glide trans is bolted to a 235 with an extra plate that the 3 speed car doesn't have. The Power Glide is held to the plate with about 10 bolts all the way around the bell housing. If you have all of those little bolts out, it should slide apart leaving you with the torque converter bolted to the flex plate. If you're trying to unbolt the "bell housing" on this trans, stop what you're doing, put the bolts back in and un bolt it as I've stated above. It might look like it has a bell housing, but it doesn't! The frame mounted half of the engine mount will unbolt from the frame, there's no reason to cut anything. If memory serves me, you'll need to remove one of them to get that big 'Glide through. I'm thinking that it was the passengers side, but don't quote me on it. On the tailshaft of the trans is that big Mason Jar nut, and a ball looking thing on the trans. Inside that "ball joint" is a universal joint where the trans hooks to the drive shaft. You may need to loosen the (6?) bolts that hold it. Just so it can move a little. That being said, my suggestion is to pull the motor mounts, slide the engine/trans forward, clear of the drive shaft, and lift the entire thing out as a unit. Last of all, and I hate being the party pooper, keep in mind what your doing. From what I understand, you have the engine unbolted, the nut backed off, the trans unhooked, and possibly the trans unbolted from the engine. What's to keep this 2 ton chunk of cast iron from coming down and smashing your skull? I know you want it out, but I doubt you want it out that bad. I've pulled this engine/ trans combo before, out of my 54 chev. Lets just say that I found out at the ripe old age of 16, just how heavy a cast Power Glide is! Be safe, good luck, let me know how it works out.
Thanks for all your help, but the yard owner called yesterday while I was at school and told my wife that they had pulled it. I don't have the number to the yard so tommorrow I'll find out exactly what was holding it up. Thanks, John
I went and picked up my engine today and was pulling it out of the back of the truck when the engine tilted and oil started pooring out of the crank? I have never seen this before. Anybody else ever expieriance something like this? I'm just afraid I just bought a real expensive and heavy boat anchor. John
At least there was still oil in there! Without seeing it who knows? Can you clean it up enough to see why it is leaking from where it is leaking? Maybe normal freshening up is on order anyway such as removing oil pan for inside cleaning and a look over. (as you said earlier work had already been done on this engine) My 2 cents is I would want to be sure of a few things before I went installing it. Gary 4T950 Chevy Guy P.S. Good Luck!
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