Finally the fateful day had arrived. I guess I hadn't assembled all of the wheel dollies yet.
As you do, while watching v8 supercar and porsche racing in the UK. It was turning into a brilliant weekend.
I laid un-boxed the hoist, and brought it and the second wheel dolly pair outside into one of my commandeered parking spots. You can see the s14a front wheels already sitting on the first pair.
Assembly 101. Yay!
Thankfully we decided to pull the s13's motor first. I'll get into that later in this entry, but on a day that most everything had to go right, this one decision may have been the deciding factor of success.
Special thanks goes out to my good friend Bhuvan. I couldn't have this without you.
I tied the 6" tow strap around the intake bracket on the driver rear and an exhaust bracket on the driver front and knotted it around the hoist hooks leaving slack in the middle. I then proceeded to disconnect the last few remaining connections including a vacuum line coming from the turbo, the lower wiring harness, and the transmission harness. I had learned my lesson when dealing with sub-harnesses and the act of unplugging what you did not have to.
I have never pulled an SR or CA before, it turned out to be much shorter than my RB, and a load leveler isnt needed, especially considering the lift point locations. If you are lifting on the center axis of a long engine from the front and rear, then it can be very helpful, if not required. The more the lift points are offset from this axis, and the shorter the actual engine (comparatively two cylinders in this case), the less useful a leveler actually is. I simply pushed down on the transmission and up on the front and the motor-set shifted into the angled orientation needed for the oil pan to clear the radiator support.
We then swung the engine and transmission around, and rested her down on the two aforementioned wheel dollies for moving around the lot.
I reinstalled the hood, which I completely removed from both cars prior to the day.
One down, one to go...
I attached the hoist and tow strap in a similar fashion to the sr20 and we began hoisting it out.
I really have to thank Bhuvan again, I can't stress enough that the day would not have gone anywhere close to as well without his presence and much needed help.
We got to the point where the sr20's front sump oil pan was clear of the radiator upper cross beam, and I started to level her out. While Bhuvan was pulling the hoist back, and I was holding the transmission to clear the fender, a caster broke on the outmost leg of the hoist and the hoist listed.
Let me explain that again. The lot was much rougher in this area, and I believe the caster wheel got stuck and failed. The car, which was on jack stands in the front at the time, raised into the air off the stands as the good leg of the hoist rotated up and around. While I was still holding the output shaft area of the transmission, Bhuvan quickly moved over and jumped on the good leg of the hoist, which was currently in the air holding the weight of the chassis off the stands. Not only did this save the motor, but also the car.
Meanwhile, I was doing everything I could in a full squat position to not let the motor hit anything with any amount of force. Amazingly enough, I was able to side step past the fender while the stand was falling and rotate it enough to clear the car completely, and with Bhuvan balancing the stand I set the tail shaft down on the ground, moved quickly over to his side, and we pulled the good leg back down. Even more amazingly, the chassis set back onto the jack stands.
These are shots after the commotion when we started to extract the hoist from under the car.
It took as long as it did to remove the s13 motor as it did to simply move the s14a motor 5 meters in the lot with a broken caster, but it was done.
As you do, while watching v8 supercar and porsche racing in the UK. It was turning into a brilliant weekend.
I laid un-boxed the hoist, and brought it and the second wheel dolly pair outside into one of my commandeered parking spots. You can see the s14a front wheels already sitting on the first pair.
Assembly 101. Yay!
Thankfully we decided to pull the s13's motor first. I'll get into that later in this entry, but on a day that most everything had to go right, this one decision may have been the deciding factor of success.
Special thanks goes out to my good friend Bhuvan. I couldn't have this without you.
I tied the 6" tow strap around the intake bracket on the driver rear and an exhaust bracket on the driver front and knotted it around the hoist hooks leaving slack in the middle. I then proceeded to disconnect the last few remaining connections including a vacuum line coming from the turbo, the lower wiring harness, and the transmission harness. I had learned my lesson when dealing with sub-harnesses and the act of unplugging what you did not have to.
I have never pulled an SR or CA before, it turned out to be much shorter than my RB, and a load leveler isnt needed, especially considering the lift point locations. If you are lifting on the center axis of a long engine from the front and rear, then it can be very helpful, if not required. The more the lift points are offset from this axis, and the shorter the actual engine (comparatively two cylinders in this case), the less useful a leveler actually is. I simply pushed down on the transmission and up on the front and the motor-set shifted into the angled orientation needed for the oil pan to clear the radiator support.
We then swung the engine and transmission around, and rested her down on the two aforementioned wheel dollies for moving around the lot.
I reinstalled the hood, which I completely removed from both cars prior to the day.
I attached the hoist and tow strap in a similar fashion to the sr20 and we began hoisting it out.
I really have to thank Bhuvan again, I can't stress enough that the day would not have gone anywhere close to as well without his presence and much needed help.
We got to the point where the sr20's front sump oil pan was clear of the radiator upper cross beam, and I started to level her out. While Bhuvan was pulling the hoist back, and I was holding the transmission to clear the fender, a caster broke on the outmost leg of the hoist and the hoist listed.
Let me explain that again. The lot was much rougher in this area, and I believe the caster wheel got stuck and failed. The car, which was on jack stands in the front at the time, raised into the air off the stands as the good leg of the hoist rotated up and around. While I was still holding the output shaft area of the transmission, Bhuvan quickly moved over and jumped on the good leg of the hoist, which was currently in the air holding the weight of the chassis off the stands. Not only did this save the motor, but also the car.
Meanwhile, I was doing everything I could in a full squat position to not let the motor hit anything with any amount of force. Amazingly enough, I was able to side step past the fender while the stand was falling and rotate it enough to clear the car completely, and with Bhuvan balancing the stand I set the tail shaft down on the ground, moved quickly over to his side, and we pulled the good leg back down. Even more amazingly, the chassis set back onto the jack stands.
These are shots after the commotion when we started to extract the hoist from under the car.
I removed a photo of myself standing next to this calamity because I may or may not have been flipping off the world at this moment. Truly I was happy we were both safe, as were the motors in question. The hoist on the other hand had given all.
It took as long as it did to remove the s13 motor as it did to simply move the s14a motor 5 meters in the lot with a broken caster, but it was done.
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