STEVE B - Without the engine hoist I don't think we would have muscled the Onan out. Plus I got to see a nice '63 Chevy II Nova painted 2150 RED with a little 555-CID Big Block Chevy that had run a 9.48 second quarter mile earlier the day we picked the hoist up. Not bad for the driver letting off the gas @ the 1000 ft mark and running E85 for gas. It's fully street legal too!, well, except it was running open headers this past weekend. While we were working on the 982 he kept texting SON, He was pulling the 9" Ford rearend out of it after running it again Sunday. Something about only ONE undamaged tooth left on the ring gear, not sure what the pinion looked like. His repair was going to cost a BUNCH more than us fixing the 982's starter!
You pull too many BIG parts off a CC like the hood & grill and you end up setting them places you shouldn't and end up working around them or moving them too many times, more chance of damage IMO. SON had the left side panel off already when I got there, When we were putting the 982 back together and getting it ready to mow he asked me where it was. I'd put it in the trunk of my car for safe keeping two days before! With the gas tank & firewall out the engine just lifted straight up an inch, we eased it forward to get the driveshaft out, then raised it up another foot and rolled the hoist/engine back out of the tractor. Hood & grill already lean forward out of the way, there was only six 1/4"-20 hex nuts and two short 3/8"-18 cap screws securing the firewall & gas tank.
A year ago when I replaced the clutch in the 72 I lifted the engine with a come-a-long tied to the loader arms on the M, only needed to raise the engine 6-8 inches to clear the frame rails, held it to the side with one hand, pulled the clutch & driveshaft out with all the wiring & control cables still attached, then let the engine rest until I was ready to reinstall the driveshaft.
Plus my 40+ yr streak of NEVER having pulled the grill casting off a CC is still intact.
DON T. - This is the first time SON & I both have worked on a CC since we finished dropping the K321 into the 72. Since I'm loaning SON the 982 to mow his yard this year I had to make a house call. He moved about 2/3rds of the way between my place and where Steve B lives 1-1/2 yrs ago. The rest of the 4 days I spent there were spent wiring his shop and insulating/drywalling it. When SON moved there a month ago his shop only had two 40W light bulbs, the ceiling and the back common wall to the house insulated & drywalled, now it's ALL insulated, ALL drywalled, has two 220V and 28 110V outlets, plus has 16 32W high efficiency neon light tubes in a 21 ft X 21 ft garage. It's a real nice place to work!
