Removing the engine/transmission frame from body

[merc81]

I've seen lots of folks trying to get at the engine in these vans for one sort of repair or another. Its really simple to drop the engine/drivetrain clear out from the van body rather than trying to do any major repairs under the hood.

The problem is to lift the van up over the drivetrain frame and then move the engine and transmission assembly out from under the van.

You can do this with an overhead beam to pull the van up from, or failing that, a pair of nice heavy floor jacks to lift both sides of the van up about 28" under the front door hinges. Once the drive frame is unbolted, you won't be lifting all that weight, so its feasible to use the floor jacks under the door hinge location.

Contrary to what it may look like in this photo, the van is nice and stable at this height, with a solid 4x4 to hold everything up while I work in there. Notice the wiring harness that has been unplugged from the O2 sensor near the converter. The other connectors went to the low oil sensor under the engine, and a few other stops along the way.
The wood beam distributes the load all along the underframe and not at one single lift point. Once you get the van up in the air it will be clear that the underbody is NOT strong enough to lift the entire van up from a single point. The ones I have worked on all had squashed frame members from sloppy car lift placement.
An overhead beam is the better way to do this if you can find something:


Notice the location where the chains are hooked--this is the upper corner of the frame just in front of the radiator. Check that your van has no rust anywhere in this area before lifting it. This location spreads the strain throughout the front corners of the body, but it requires the sheet metal to be in good condition! Also, please note that I've replaced or left in place both the angle struts that brace the body corners.



Here, you can see the come-alongs hanging from the overhead beam above.
I've lifted several vans in this way with no problems.

Removing the drive train in this way requires only a little prep work.
You need to remove the front wheels and calipers, drive out the two bolts that attach the
strut to the bearing arm and separate the steering shaft linkage from the steering motor.
The wiring harness comes off from the O2 sensor aft of the catalytic converter all the way up, under the engine to the front near the radiator. This takes only a couple minutes once you trace out the path of the cable.
Two nuts remove the exhaust, and it drops down.
The AC compressor gets unbolted from the block and the fuel/heater lines need unplugged. If there is interest, I can post pix and descriptions for the entire process, but much is self evident once you consider that the engine will be dropping downward as the body lifts.

Below, I'm preparing to replace the transmission on this one so I've got the van up on the jacks, while the chain is supporting the engine over the frame.


Not shown above is the other chain that was used to lift and remove the transmission clear of the engine/frame assembly:

The newly rebuild 4l65e transmission & its new converter prior to re-assembly.