Reply to "Pulling The ZF in the 74"

Tim,

If your going to remove the ZF and bell housing as one piece.....The easiest way I've found to do this is to:

Take the 6 bolts your talking about out, I believe what your talking about is actually the ZF mount bolts, not the motor mounts bolts, right ? Because you don't have to touch the motor mounts to get the ZF out. Remove the 4 bolts on each haft shaft, speedo cable, reverse light wires, battery ground, the shift linkage from the ZF and the wheel house spreader bar. Remove the clutch slave line from the slave. It's also a lot easier if you remove the rear deck !

Take the nuts off the starter and pull the starter away from the bell housing. You will also find 2 bolts that hold the motor cover plate to the bell housing under the car, remove those as well otherwise it's not coming a part.

Strap/Wrap the ZF with a strong towing strap and connect it to a cherry picker of you have one, sure hope you do!! Take up the slack but no pressure yet.

Using a 2x4 on a small jack, put the 2x4 under the oil pan so that it covers from side to side so you don't crush your oil pan, raise the motor 1", maybe a little more if needed.

Put a little upward pressure on the cherry picker and make sure the ZF is being supported by the strap. Pull back on the ZF and it will seperate with the bell housing from the motor and clear the pilot bearing. Continue to rasie the cherry picker little by little while pulling back on the ZF. Keep the front of the ZF pointed a little down while your continue to rasie the the ZF while you continue to pull it back and out of the pressure plate. Make sure you guide it along the way out.

Not to complicated really. Just takes time the first time your doing it. Go slow and don't force anything...

Having taken my ZF out 5 or 6 times :-( , I've gotten it down to being able to get it out, change the pressure plate and clutch disc and get everything back together in about 5 hours by myself.

Hope this helps....