Morris Minor Owners Club

I'm trying to get the engine back onto the gearbox using an engine crane. It's clear of the front cross member and the gearbox has been lifted as far as it will go but the engine is still clear of the box by a couple of inches and won't go back.
Help!

Have you tried rocking it transversely to try and match up the splines on the shaft and engine? It can be a "bit of a bother"...

I'm a bit worried the suspended, rocking mass of the engine will bend the shaft.

Very gentle rocking, or figure out a different way to rotate one or other of the spline sets (rock 'box?)- I've only ever done it once with 'box in car, and it worked for us. We're doing Nikki's on Sunday, hope it does again...

Just realised 'transversely' could be seen the wrong way - I mean from side to side, in the same axis as the shafts rotate.

presumably rotating the front crank pully would have the same effect? and combined with moving the engine and adjusting the hoist it's effectively a two person job?

If you have room to get in and rotate the crank, it would - I guess you could get in there with a spanner.. There were 2 of us, and we were both working quite hard!
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Have you changed the clutch? If you did have you ensured that the clutch plate has been centralised with an alignment tool. I once spent a day trying to mate an anglia engine and gearbox. Centralising the clutch with a tool enabled it to go straight in.

Dead right - I was assuming you had done it.
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If the clutch is lined up OK, the other way is turn the back wheels to turn the gearbox spline. These days I do motor and box together as it is so much easier

Pyoor Kate had that sort of trouble when she put her engine back in. I seem to recall part of it was due to a hole not being big enough on the backplate...

But I think she also ended up having problems when the hole was fixed.. Big ol' hammer or sommat...

Also there are some locator studs to battle with
Where are you lifting from? if the two are not lined up, she wont fit either, so it may be worth repositioning the chain on the motior and try again.
Good luck

The clutch is fine and has not been replaced. the engine is a 1300 which was removed from another 1098 gearbox (elsewhere now).
The front panel etc has been removed from the car so the engine is being lowered in sloping backwards as it meets the gearbox shaft and then almost levels off when the engine is nearly home. This I think is where the problem occurs. I can't see how I can ensure the gearbox and engine are at the same angle to each other.

Another thought - have you taken off the bolts on the 'box Xmember holding the 'box down so you can lift the it a wee bit more?

This is one of those frustrating battle for hours, try and try again and then suddenly it just slips in like there never was any problem jobs.

Basically, try re-aligning the clutch - get it as close as possible to perfect then 'pop' the engine back in and wiggle and jiggle it. I ended up with a jack under the sump, a second one under the gearbox and the engine on a crane. Eventually it just slipped most of the way together, and was then pulled the final half inch by using the backplate bolts to pull the mating surfaces together.

If you have a crane, itmay be easier to just pull the box out of the car, join them up and drop it in. You'll be amazed how easy it will slip together.

It's my preference to take them both out togther, but others seem to worry about taking the front panel off. I find it much easier to work on them both on the ground

itmay be easier to just pull the box out of the car

I do. What else do I need to undo to get the box out?

bigginger wrote:It's my preference to take them both out together, but others seem to worry about taking the front panel off. I find it much easier to work on them both on the ground

..and I wish we had - V. odd bolts on engine towers to floor which we couldn't remove, so still struggling to put Multiphonikks' back in...

If the engine's out, to remove 'box is bolts to crossmember, g'box steady bolts (not really bolts, the cable anyhow) and I think that's it... but I expect corrections about removing xmember and prop...

Ah well Andrew, we'll hope that we can just slot it all in tomorrow

Nikki