pull engine or rearend?

Rear end is how I do it. Leave the spring attached, just be sure to put a big C clamp on it while it's sitting out of the car. You don't want that center bolt deciding to let loose while it's sitting in the middle of your garage. Or while you're bent over it.
 
I agree with the rear end. It can be done in the driveway. Although I was fixing the OD I would have done the same for a clutch replacement. Looks like the vote tips toward out the rear. I'm 26 years older now so I may enlist some help next time.
 

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Logan said:
Rear end is how I do it. Leave the spring attached, just be sure to put a big C clamp on it while it's sitting out of the car. You don't want that center bolt deciding to let loose while it's sitting in the middle of your garage. Or while you're bent over it.
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For all the decades that the Model A has been around people have been pulling the rear axle assembly with the spring attached. However, it is a dangerous practice. Not only can the center bolt let go, but a worn shackle bolt can let go. Most people do not realize the tremendous amount of energy that is packed into a Model A rear spring. The safe place for a spread rear spring is under the car attached to the frame. A spring spreader should be employed and left in place until the rear axle assembly is reinstalled.

Attached photos were posted here on this forum recently by a fellow down in Australia that had a shackle bolt break while trying to remove the assembly without a spreader.

Had the shackle bolt broken after the assembly was out from under the car the spring would have pirouetted and likely broken the other shackle and flung the spring in any direction.

One of the photos show him working over the spring installing a spreader he later acquired. The center bolt could have let go while he was doing that. It can also let go while you are installing or removing a C-clamp.

Tom Endy
 

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As I have a Mitchell overdrive in the middle of the driveshaft I think I would go from the front and pull the engine, removing the lights and radiator are simple operations and you can stabilize the transmission so its not so loosey goosey. I dropped a bolt into the flywheel housing of my 30 roadster( no overdrive) and I had the engine pulled and back in place in a couple hours.
 
Logan said:
Rear end is how I do it. Leave the spring attached, just be sure to put a big C clamp on it while it's sitting out of the car. You don't want that center bolt deciding to let loose while it's sitting in the middle of your garage. Or while you're bent over it.
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I all ways pull the rear end. Jack up rear of Body and frame. Remove wheels and tires. Side rear end out. I have never considered danger of Spring until I read these posts. I don't have a spring spreaded, could 3 pieced of heavy chain work?? Wrapped around rear end and spring and bolted together with grade 8 bolts or the like. Thanks for your advise !!!
 
Pulling the engine or the rear axle assembly to get at the transmission is pretty much a personal choice. It is whatever you are comfortable with, and your knowledge of doing either task. My preference is to pull the rear, regardless if an overdrive is attached. The reason being I have done it many more times than I have pulled an engine. I also have a roll around cradle and some high jack stands to support the frame. The cradle rolls under the back of the car and the rear axle assembly is lowered into it and then pulled out from under the back of the car and left in the cradle until time to re-install. The effort take about 45 minutes if I have some willing workers to help. By myself it takes a little longer.

Tom Endy
 
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am I missing something? doesn't the motor have to come out to get the transmission out? what about the cross member right behind the trans? can you get the trans low enough to get it out?
 
The BEST of advice from Tom Endy. I prefer pulling the rear end. Less chance of scratching paint with tools.
 
Tom Endy said:
Pulling the engine or the rear axle assembly to get at the transmission is pretty much a personal choice. It is whatever you are comfortable with, and your knowledge of doing either task. My preference is to pull the rear, regardless if an overdrive is attached. The reason being I have done it many more times than I have pulled an engine. I also have a roll around cradle and some high jack stands to support the frame. The cradle rolls under the back of the car and the rear axle assembly is lowered into it and then pulled out from under the back of the car and left in the cradle until time to re-install. The effort take about 45 minutes if I have some willing workers to help. By myself it takes a little longer.

Tom Endy
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I agree totally with Tom.
Wayne
 
Tom Endy,

Thanks, so the idea is to "safe" the rear spring with a spreader, then remove the U bolts holding the spring to the frame... sound like $150 or so for peace of mind is good advice.
 
mshmodela said:
Tom Endy,

Thanks, so the idea is to "safe" the rear spring with a spreader, then remove the U bolts holding the spring to the frame... sound like $150 or so for peace of mind is good advice.
Click to expand...


You do not have to remove the U-bolts attaching the spring to the frame unless you plan to remove the spring itself for restoration.

To remove the rear axle assembly the procedure is to install the spring spreader to capture the tension in the spring. You then remove the shackle bolts from each side of the axle assemble. Remove the rear axle assembly from the car and leave the spring still attached to the frame and the spring spreader still in place. The safest place for a rear spring that is under lethal tension is bolted to the frame under the car. When it is time to re-install the rear reverse the process. You can leave the spreader in place indefinitely. If you are not comfortable doing so you can back the nuts off on the spreader and remove it. If you plan to remove the spring for restoration this is what you would do. The spring then does not have lethal tension.

Be sure to use a proper spring spreader that hooks to both sides of the rear axle and securely captures the spring around both shackle bosses. Suppliers also sell what they call a "traveling spring spreader". These only spread one side and are extremely dangerous. They can easily launch like an arrow from a cross bow. That may be why they call them "traveling".

Tom Endy
 
Perhaps a question for Tom about rear-end removal:
Would it be OK (safe) to remove the rear-end with the spring attached if a heavy duty springspreader was ALSO loaded/mounted onto the spring?
Thanks.
 
Tom Endy said:
Attached photos were posted here on this forum recently by a fellow down in Australia that had a shackle bolt break while trying to remove the assembly without a spreader.

Had the shackle bolt broken after the assembly was out from under the car the spring would have pirouetted and likely broken the other shackle and flung the spring in any direction.

One of the photos show him working over the spring installing a spreader he later acquired. The center bolt could have let go while he was doing that. It can also let go while you are installing or removing a C-clamp.

Tom Endy
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I am that man! The ignorance of a newbie is a wonderful thing, and I guess that if I was a cat, I have used up one of my lives. :o Tom's advice becomes real when you re-tension that spring with the spreader and can feel the energy that is being stored in the spring. I won't be doing that again.

Not proud of being in Tom's Hall of Infamy, but if it helps others, I'll suffer the indignity!

Having said all that, if the centre bolt is going to let go while the spring is suspended from the cross member with the spreader in place and detached from the axle, it's still going to make a hell of a mess of something/someone! :eek:
 
Pat Martone said:
Perhaps a question for Tom about rear-end removal:
Would it be OK (safe) to remove the rear-end with the spring attached if a heavy duty springspreader was ALSO loaded/mounted onto the spring?
Thanks.
Click to expand...


While I am not Tom, I can answer your question in a simple word, ...'No!'

It is not safer necessarily safer. The reason is the spring is under the same r even more tension (...albeit a tad amount) with the spreader installed placing a tad more pressure against the tie-bolt.

.
 
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