TR ENGINE/TRANS REMOVAL (by Ric Rainbolt)

The TR engine can be removed "at home", but extra care must be taken. The depth of usable space in your garage must be about 1.5 times the length of the car. The method I use is to place the front wheels on something about 4 inches high, like a suitably rated set of roller crate palettes (1200 lbs each) or some 2x8s or 2x10s. This way you can avoid removing the front sub-spoiler when you jack the back end up high enough to remove the engine.  Here are the basic steps. Some may be slightly out of order.

1) Disconnect battery by turning off the main switch in the front bonnet.
 

2) Remove the rear bumper. Be prepared when you slide it out, as it's fairly heavy. You'll need a soft place to set it in order to not scratch the paint.
 

3) Drain the engine oil from the tank and the engine. Drain the coolant from the radiators and the rear of the heads. The fuel tank needs to be less than about 1/3 full.
 

4) Disconnect the hoses and connections. These include: fuel lines, brakes, coolant, air ducts, brake vacuum lines and oil lines. An extra large metric wrench is needed for the large oil line fittings. There are several fuel return lines between the motor and fuel tanks that are easy to miss. On euro cars, there are two electrical harness to disconnect plus the main battery clip (up near the oil tank). On US cars, I think there are one or two more electrical connectors. Also, the handbrake cable should be disconnected at the "U" pulley.
 

5) Put the transmission in 2nd and disconnect the shift shaft without knocking it out of gear. Once the shaft is disconnected, put the cockpit lever in 3rd.
 

6) There is no need to remove the rear wheels, half axles, oil tank, coolant expansion tank, ignition modules, spark wires, ignition caps, etc.
 

7) Remove the muffler(s). You should not have to remove to cats or the > headers. > > 8) Place the front wheels on something about 4 inches high (Boards, roller crate palette, etc).
 

9) There are 16 bolts in the front and about 6 in rear of the engine that hold the engine sub-frame to the main chassis. I remove 3 bolts from each cluster of 4 in the front, and all but the two rearmost bolts in the rear.
 

10) Two nuts must be removed from the top of each of the 4 rear shock absorbers. If you clean that area off, you can tell which ones need to be removed and which ones don't.
 

11) At this point, you're ready to raise the chassis, while the engine sub-frame stays on the ground. When the sub-frame is loose, it's *front-heavy*, so you'll need some sort of support under the front of the engine. I use a flat roller palette with a pair of 2x8's to support the front of the engine.
 

12) Using two floor jacks on opposite sides of the car, begin to raise the chassis on the frame rail 'Y', just in front of the radiators. Only raise the floor jacks just enough to support the chassis. Don't raise it very much at this point (1/2 inch).
 

13) Carefully remove the remaining bolts holding the sub-frame. Keep in mind that the sub-frame may shift so don't get any personal parts in between anything that they might get smashed.
 

14) Slowly raise the chassis off the engine sub-frame. If the sub-frame wants to stay with the chassis, stop and find out why. DON'T KEEP LIFTING! Sometimes, the threads on the shock absorber towers will hang on the sheet metal, so be wary of that.
 

15) Once the frame is about 6-8 inches above the sub-chassis. You have to roll the engine back 4-6 inches to keep the transmission shift shaft from getting bent.
 

16) As you roll the engine back, the limiting factor will be: a) the clearance of the wheel arches to the tires AND the right hand cam belt cover clearing the oil radiator fan assembly. Letting some (not all!) of the air out of the rear tires will gain you an extra inch or two for getting the engine below the wheel arches.
 

18) Continue to raise the chassis, keeping a careful eye for binding items > > or forgotten hoses, wires, etc. Also, make sure the front sub-spoiler doesn't reach the ground and get crushed.
 

19) Roll the engine back and away from the car.
 

20) Lower the chassis and support it on jack stands.

Extra notes:

a) You will get fluid(s) everywhere. Without a chassis lift, I doubt it's even possible to get a TR motor out without at least a little spillage of some sort.
 

b) The first time I did this, it took about 20 hours total, and the intermittent help (5 hours) of 3 other people. The second time I did this, I did it entirely myself in about 7-ish hours. I recommend at least 2 people be present (for extra eyes and for safety).
 

c) Have a good Halon fire extinguisher nearby, just in case.