Turbo Odyssey Part 7 -- Quickie Update 

 November 18, 2004 

Wednesday night I bought an engine hoist.  Not a tool in that many Vair owner's garages, I figure it to be handy for a bunch of jobs other than taking motors out of the top of cars. How unnatural!

I put this big blue beast together and then picked up my grunge encrusted powertrain with it:

Eeeew.

Once I had it up in the air, the lower shrouds came off (what a crusty mess!) as did the exhaust manifolds and cross over.

Next step was to pull the back seat out of the Suburban, put down a whole bunch of blue plastic tarps, and then wheel the powertrain into the truck. 

Then I folded the hoist up, and shoved it in the back of the truck--the wrong way.  Out it came, turned it around and then it fit just fine:

  Thursday I had an eviction trial (day two with the tenant from Hell) in Rockford, just north of Grand Rapids.  Dan Konkle, a WMCC member who is going to be rebuilding the powertrain, lives about five minutes from Rockford, so after the trial (another one bites the dust) I headed for Dan's place.  We unloaded the cherry picker, unloaded the powertrain, and loaded in a dummy powertrain to be installed in the car while it's in the body shop.  I got the thing home, bolted together the transaxle and the empty block that Dan loaned me, and wonder of wonders it balanced almost perfectly on the cherry picker, hanging from the eyehole in the top of the bell housing.  Simple minds are easily amused.  Now if I could just get the garage clean...

Windshield needs to be pulled, engine compartment needs to lose the voltage regulator, insulation, shroud seal, and the kick panels need to come out.  Rear seat belts need to be removed.  Then the dummy powertrain goes in, the engine lid support comes out, the car hits the ground, and it's off to the media blaster.  Can I get all this done this weekend?  Doubtful.

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