Engine Installed

Last weekend we installed the engine into the car. It was not nearly the job that I had expected it to be. It's been a few years since I installed a Bug engine but it all came back to me pretty fast. It was not nearly as difficult as installing the engine into my '72 VW Bus.

As you can see, I used an ATV jack that I bought from Harbor Freight. This was much easier than using the old jack and worth the money spent. In all, it took about 3 hours from the time we jacked up the car to the time we let it down and called it good.

We only had to go in and back out once when we found that the outer transmission hoop bolts we in backwards. I had the nut sides facing in and the bolt was too long. As a result it was making contact with the flywheel. Once we turned those around, the engine slid right in.

At one point we got a ratchet stuck on the starter bolt that cost us about 1/2 hour. Later we found that the ratchet broke while we were working behind the fan shroud.

I installed a temporary starter stitch but mistakenly shorted it out after the engine was installed. I'll need to replace it and install a fuse in the line for this to work right. I installed this to assist with starting the engine before we connect the entire wiring harness. I'll need to install all the switches and lights for that and don't plan this task until after paint.