As stated in the previous post, the next move was going to be the removal of the powertrain. As with most of the other parts of this project the powertrain removal actually went pretty painlessly. The first thing we did was pull the car forward a few feet to give me some space to pull it back again when we got the crane staged in front of the car. This was done using the Tracker and a tow strap, quick and easy. From there we got the engine crane staged in front of the car and lucky to find, the engine actually had loops bolted to the exhaust manifolds of the engine, allowing me to just secure the chains from the engine balancer right to those points. From there I went to the cab of the car and unbolted the driveshaft, which since the floor was gone was rather fast. After getting the driveshaft taken care of I went to the transmission crossmember and removed the bolts from that. Again, since the floor was gone, the bolts were fast to remove and the added icing on the cake was that the transmission mount was shot, so the crossmember just dropped free from the transmission, no need to remove the bolts holding it all together. From there out came the trusty battery reciprocating saw. This time its target was the exhaust system. Since I didn't want to just completely trash the system since it could be put to use I chose to make cuts at two points just before the pipes merge into one pipe, so the exhaust manifolds will have a good length of pipe that can be extended into two separate exhaust pipes in a true dual exhaust system. The single pipe heading to the rear consisted of the merge pipe, a short length of pipe going into a glass pack or cherry bomb muffler and a short piece terminating just in front of the rear end. The short piece between the muffler and the merge/Y pipe was actually fractured but instead of breaking the pipe I kept it intact since this pipe could still be used, such as for a 4 cyl or straight 6 engine such as the 6 cyl in the 69 Mustang. The last thing to remove was the shifter, which was an aftermarket unit with a cable that was mounted to the side of the transmission with two bolts. Again with the missing floor, this went fast and the shifter was on the ground in a few minutes. From here I went to the engine compartment and used the impact wrench to remove the bolts holding the engine mounts. With everything disconnected from the powertrain nothing was stopping us from pulling the stuff from the car. I started jacking the engine up and as I did that we started pushing the car back. Since the car was already on a slight grade, it rolled back pretty easily. I had to put a tire behind the car to allow for incremental movements so the car don't just run away from us and hit the F250 which was right behind the Mustang. In a few minutes we managed to get the engine and transmission swinging in the air over the Mustang's now voided engine bay. With the engine free of the Mustang we was able to push the car back enough to give us space under the unit and the crane so we can lower everything to the ground. It is those few minutes that almost 1000 lbs of metal are swinging in the air that stress me out the most. It is this time when I try to expedite getting the engine and tranny on the ground, which we did. At this point I disconnected the crane from the powertrain and moved it out of my way so I can start pulling things apart on the engine as part of another side project. The side project with the engine and transmission is that I plan on rebuilding the engine, using the cylinder heads from the newly acquired F150 truck that has a dead engine. I plan on installing this rebuilt engine into the F150 in order to get that truck rolling once again. As for the C4 transmission, there is a probability that the unit is good, so this transmission can possibly be used in the future truck frame swap for the 69 Mustang. If I find another V8 I could then install it on the C4 and just drop all of this in the truck frame that I would drop the 69 Mustang body onto. Either way, old school Ford transmissions are harder to come by than GM units. I have to save this thing. With the powertrain free of the Mustang, at least now I can start on the next phase of the project, actually turning the car into a chicken coop. I have plenty of other plans for building up this chicken coop to be something way beyond anything any backyard poultry farmer ever had.
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