BRU 434B And the Journey Begins - First Engine Removal and more

[High_dan]

Hi all,

Firstly hope you are all well and staying safe!?



As some of you know I’ve been preparing ‘Kermit’ my mk 1 Imp (BRU434B) for a memorial run to the south of France in memory of my dad (planning a full write up of this). That’s now been postponed due to the crazy world we are living in. Anyway at least it give me time to fully revamp the running gear in the car.

My job next week is to remove the engine in so I can tidy up the engine bay in preparation for the new 998 that Andy Jones is building me.

I've read all the workshop manual guides etc and feel happy about the job but thinking about making a small wooden trolley to aid the the removal rather than just a trolley jack.

before I try to redesign the wheel, Has anyone done this before ? Got plans? Or is it a waste of time?

Thanks in advance, kind regards

Dan

[John A. Ross]

Not sure you will ever get the same answers as to how to pull an imp engine

Pulling it not quite the same as refitting it

If you are doing it on your own I prefer to pull the transaxle at same time, entirely personal preference here.

Drive couplings detached, gear change flexi detached, two transaxle rear mount bolts removed and the clutch slave cylinder. Thats all the additional work there is.

Bonus is you can leave everything elses on the bell housing until its out of the car and easy access.

You can leave everything else on the engine except the air pan which will take out some paint.

Jack up trasnaxle and blocks under it and engine to just raise it free of the crossmember. Return in reverse order

Push car forward.

We should have done that on Mildred rather than Pat and myself fighting to get the engine mated back in on end of trolley jack as we are not so young any more.

John

[High_dan]

Thanks John, taking the whole lot out in one lump sounds like a plan. Sure it won’t be as easy as you say ! I will try and photograph my endeavour and put it on this post.

[John A. Ross]

Dan

Only usual point of grief is the flexi, likely been clamped tight for a long time, once the lock bolt is out (keep that safe it is a special) make sure the sleeve is off the gear change shaft on the ransaxle.

Other than that everyone should practice removal of a driveshaft coupling now and again

Remember you only need to remove the driveshaft side, you can leave the inner shaft and coupling in place, just stick a bungie around it to hold the couplings in the trasnaxle otherwise it will be a big pudlle of mess.

Get a set of Bob Pictons Petowner magnetic sump plug for the trasnaxle and the new engine as well, empty out the old oil from the trasnaxle and refill with new plug. Again, lot easier to do out the car


John

[Petowner]

Whats so special about flexi bolt then John?as l probably don't have one.

Bob

[PMCG]

Whats so special about flexi bolt then John?as l probably don't have one.

Think the bolt for the flexi coupling on the gear linkage is a high tensile one, John will be able to confirm.

Unless you tie a ball of string around this, paint it yellow, put it in a big marked bag then put this away in a safety deposit box you will misplace it. ;)

[moose549]

It has a longer shank to thread length than a standard bolt so the shank is what sits on the rod that comes out of the box.

[John A. Ross]

Cheers Mike

[John A. Ross]

Think the bolt for the flexi coupling on the gear linkage is a high tensile one, John will be able to confirm.

Unless you tie a ball of string around this, paint it yellow, put it in a big marked bag then put this away in a safety deposit box you will misplace it. ;)

As far as I know Pat it is a HT one, seen plenty bolts strip getting rumped up in there.

Put it in a bag, WAY too organised for me, let the spanners fly !

[John A. Ross]

Whats so special about flexi bolt then John?as l probably don't have one.

Bob

Bob

The other Bob keeps them for the flexi and the steering rack, they are both similar

John

[moose549]

Here is how i would do it. Disconnect battery, Jack rear of car up and use axle stands, Undo the gear linkage, remove bolt, use a thin blade like an old joiners chisel and tap this into the UJ clamp slit that the bolt closes up to achieve the grip be careful of using too much force hammering it in as the gearbox selector shaft is in an aluminium housing, slide off the joint. Remove gearbox mount bolts that fit through crossmember, remove earth lead, hook hand brake cables over the back of the gearbox rear plate where the mounts fit i.e. towards the front of the car so they do not snag the engine and box when you remove them. Remove the outer Nuts for the drive shaft donuts and tap the bolts back towards gearbox and rotate wheel to flex the bolts free of the driveshaft and allow driveshafts to hang down clear of gearbox. Remove the lowest gearbox to bell housing nut and washer. Remove bottom hose on rad and collect coolant in a bucket. Whilst this is draining, disconnect choke cable and throttle cable, disconnect all electrical connections, undo top hose and heater pipes, remove air filter housing, remove the bolts between the rear panel and wings these can be a pig so once you have them and the panel out get new bolts and tap the captive nuts threads clean and when replacing use anti-seize compound.The reason for removing them now whilst the car is in the air is you bend your back less. Remove radiator, Jack car up and remove axle stands, lower to floor place a 2ft square piece of plywood or similar on the trolley jack and place this under engine and box just and so take the weight. Undo the big bolt through the engine mount if you have the correct weight on the jack the bolt should slide out, raise or lower jack to get this right. Remove rear bumper, remove the two nuts from the rear panel studs that fasten it to chassis. Remove rear panel, lower jack so rear of engine droops towards floor this will give you more access to the two bolts that hold the clutch slave cylinder on be careful when lowering that you do not stress the flexi hose. Now raise the jack until it is all horizontal again and if you have the wood and jack in the centre of engine and boxes weight you should be able to push down on the engine mount point and the gearbox will lift slightly now holding engine and trolley jack handle pull engine and box out. With the engine and box on the floor you can now remove the starter and the gearbox as all the nuts and bolts are accessible (because you took the lower nut off the bell housing when it was all in the car). On the rally car i have a dry break Staubli coupling so i just un plug the longer aeroquip hose from the slave and can plug it back in without the need to bleed system. I also have no tin shields or rear rad My and one water proof plug so the engine has its own little loom that comes out with the engine. My record is 22 mins to have the clutch spinner plate in my hand with no stress no hassle and no paint scratched.

[High_dan]

Thanks mike, in regards to your last stamens - I’ll try for under 22 hours, some stress and a few scratched knuckles! Lol. Might make a start today will let you all know how I get on.

[High_dan]

Do I have to strap the donuts to undo the bolts?

[PMCG]

Do I have to strap the donuts to undo the bolts?

Not needed, if you just undo the outer bolts on the driveshaft and then spin the wheel around the bolt will come out of the shaft.

[John A. Ross]

Dan

not sure if I will ever change enough engines to get to Mikes 22 minutes but it is impressive !

Pat is worse, he has to clean all the bolts first before he puts them back on

I end up pulling the beast out one day, attend to what is needed on rest of the day and next and pop in next day.


John