So I'm getting ready to pull the motor on my ranger for the first time mostly alone tomorrow so I'm looking for any advice anyone can give to help me not mess things up! I'm changing engine mounts, torque converter, and rear main seal. Advice for smooth reinstall would be appreciated too.

Thanks everyone

 

Take lot of picture so you know where everything goes back in. Don't put your hands where they ill get pinched or crushed. Use a good engine hoist.

 

Remember, you are lifting out 500+ pounds from engine bay, so torsion bars will have no weight holding them down so vehicle will raise up 6" to 8" in the front, if not a bit more
So have a spare jack and jack stands to remove the front tires if hoist can't get engine high enough, or just to lower the front down to make it easier to get in the engine bay

 

Thanks for the replies yall. I think I got all my pictures down, im using a 1 tonn hoist with a leveler on it so I think it'll be enough. I am prepared with a jack and stands if I need to pull my wheels to get it lower. I'm wondering if backing out the tensioner for the torsion bars will help with lowering. Also should the engine just slide off the trans smoothly or will there be a bit of prying and pulling involved?

 

I tried pulling the wheels to begin with and set the brake rotors on some wood on the floor but the hoist legs would run into the lower a arms

 

Need more wood blocks, lol

Yes and no, if its an automatic, torque converter is bolted to the flexplate/crankshaft but not to the transmission, so it will slide out of transmission with the engine, but........................
Its quite long and FULL of ATF, so ALOT of ATF will start leaking out if engine is at an angle
While its a pain, unbolting the torque convert's 4 nuts/bolts from flex plate and sliding it back, leaving torque converter in the bell housing, is best way, and in any case you HAVE TO re-install it that way or you will break the transmission

Manual trans will just slide apart

 

It is an auto, probably should mentioned that haha. So I got all 9 bellhousing bolts out and the 4 torque converter bolts out last night and hooked it up to the hoist this morning but it doesn't seem to wanna come out. There's a little less them a half inch gap on the passenger side of the bellhousing and one a few millimeters on the driver side, I don't wanna force it too much but it doesn't seem to want to come out

 

It will
I assume starter is out as well, have to ask?

You may need to jack up the bell housing a bit to release the Guide dowels, and so front of trans doesn't fall down and torque converter falls out, its heavy and will slide out on its own
Beside the bolts there are at least 2 Guide Dowels in block and/or bell housing that align the crank and input shaft, they need to be a tight fit for correct alignment
Wiggling helps release those

 

Starter is out, I have the trans supported with a jack so I'll try raising it up a bit and wiggling. I see one guide pin out but I think the driver side might still be in there. Would separating them manually with tools hurt it too much or should I stick to wiggling it?
I'll keep the thread up dated, thank you so much for quick replies

 

Just pry them apart won't hurt anything but will shift around when it frees up so watch out for your fingers

 

Thanks for the help, the motor is now out! The guide dowel just needed some more persuading. Now I just deal with the guide pins on the new engine mounts being slightly not in the correct place

 

The arm on my hoist is about 4-6 inches too short to be able to get the back of the block lined up with the transmission so I am very stuck. Any advice would be appreciated

 

May have to pull the front bumper to get that 4-6 inches.

 

Unfortunately I have the drummer and grille already off. I had to bite the bullet and get a bigger hoist

 

Okay yall so I have another problem. I have everything installed and I fired up the truck and took it on a test drive and it felt weird driving and shifting, kinda like it was low on power. After a minute or two of driving it sounded like there was possibly a knocking noise from the bell housing. Did I severely mess something up? Is there a break in? All the TC and bell housing bolts when in smoothly. I'm getting so frustrated with this job

 

Whats the story on the engine ?

Did you rebuild yours or change something?

Is it a replacement engine, new or rebuilt or used?

Did you SEAT the torque converter inside the bell housing FIRST and then bolt engine to bell housing, and then bolt torque converter to flex plate?

 

So the motor only came out so I could do the motor mounts and the rear main seal at the same time I did the TC. The motor had no issues prior to this. I did seat the TC into the bellhousing before mating it back with the motor, 3 clicks seated down. What I failed to mention was I also replaced all my fuel injector connectors as most of the clips had broken off over the years and i switch to a ev6 style injector and I think I might have the wrong duty cycle. The truck ended up throwing a code for a lean bank 2 p0175 I think it was. So I'm gonna read up and try to find the correct duty cycle and see if that fixes the issue. The truck goes in to every gear and reverse smoothly so I'm starting to think the problem lies in those new injectors

 

TC means timing chains in one place and Torque converter in the other place?

Anyway, the 4.0l OHV used 19lbs injectors, if you put in 14lbs then you would get lean codes, but shouldn't cause any noises

 

Always meant torque converter when saying TC, I didn't mess with the timing chains.

I dont know what lb rating the injectors i bought were but I'm gonna take them back and find the correct ones. I'm thinking the noises I was hearing mightve been the torque converter before it was completely full.

Unfortunately I had to leave the truck back at home, I had to go down to SD to visit family for the weekend. So I hope I can get back to it Monday or Tuesday

 

Okay so I finally have an update! My rough running issues were a loosely crimped fuel injector lead, so that's fixed and the motor is running normally. However under acceleration there's a loud rattling from the bellhousing accompanied by a knocking. It shifts into drive and reverse just fine, it's just that noise. I'm going to check the torque converter bolts after it cools back down to see if I maybe didn't have them all the way tight

 

Okay so final update for this thread. I did end up having one torque converter nut that was loose, after that I warmed up and got on the gas pretty good during test driver and there were no noises. My check engine light is still on for bank 1 and 2 being rich but I read the fuel trims on a drive out to Arizona and they seem to be fine the majority of the time, it runs and idles great. Since I switch injector styles will I have to get the paired to the computer?

Again thanks everyone for the help!