more than one way to skin a cat

Problem - Car has been pushed into a non-paved carport, suspension has
been removed first, now the engine needed to be pulled to be sold.

The customer has a lift, but it will not roll at the front of the car
and there is not room to back his truck up to it.
Bad planning, if I had backed it in, there would not be a problem.

Solution: see below. Warning, this may be painful to '96M owners. A
helper would have been nice on this one.

http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/pat/miataremains.jpg
http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/pat/miataremains2.jpg
http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/pat/miataremains3.jpg

Pat

you know what i see? you forgot to remove the rear view mirror.

"pws" > wrote in message
...
> Problem - Car has been pushed into a non-paved carport, suspension has
> been removed first, now the engine needed to be pulled to be sold.
>
> The customer has a lift, but it will not roll at the front of the car and
> there is not room to back his truck up to it.
> Bad planning, if I had backed it in, there would not be a problem.
>
> Solution: see below. Warning, this may be painful to '96M owners. A helper
> would have been nice on this one.
>
> http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/pat/miataremains.jpg
> http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/pat/miataremains2.jpg
> http://img.inkfrog.com/pix/pat/miataremains3.jpg
>
> Pat

Christopher Muto wrote:
> you know what i see? you forgot to remove the rear view mirror.

There is that, the Frankentein bolts, the receiving latches for the top,
a couple of brake & fuel lines that I won't mess with and the e-brake
cables, maybe 30 to 45 minutes left on this one, after I find my large
torx screwdriver.

I would have finished yesterday but I was suffering severe blood loss
from the razor wire that Mazda runs throughout the car.

Still, it reached almost 70 yesterday and should hit 74 today.
It was nice to get outside to work on it finally as we have been having
weather so cold that it even *freezes* once in a while. ;-)

The motor and body should be gone today, woo-hoo!

Pat

i should have known that you wouldn't miss such an obvious thing. but i
don't know that working on a car that is on its side is such a great idea.
if we don't hear back from you in a couple of days we will come over to lift
the things off of your legs...

"pws" > wrote in message
...
> Christopher Muto wrote:
>> you know what i see? you forgot to remove the rear view mirror.
>
> There is that, the Frankentein bolts, the receiving latches for the top, a
> couple of brake & fuel lines that I won't mess with and the e-brake
> cables, maybe 30 to 45 minutes left on this one, after I find my large
> torx screwdriver.
>
> I would have finished yesterday but I was suffering severe blood loss from
> the razor wire that Mazda runs throughout the car.
>
> Still, it reached almost 70 yesterday and should hit 74 today.
> It was nice to get outside to work on it finally as we have been having
> weather so cold that it even *freezes* once in a while. ;-)
>
> The motor and body should be gone today, woo-hoo!
>
> Pat
>

Christopher Muto wrote:
> i should have known that you wouldn't miss such an obvious thing. but i
> don't know that working on a car that is on its side is such a great idea.
> if we don't hear back from you in a couple of days we will come over to lift
> the things off of your legs...

Come on Chris, it is not that heavy. I haven't used a car jack in years,
I just lift one end with one hand while placing the jack stands with the
other.
All of this talk of spring compressors is amusing as well. Just squeeze
'em shut with your hand. If you are really weak, you may need to use
both hands and have a helper do the bolts. ;-)

I did chain and even locked it to the post. I have never seen a
neighborhood kid in the yard, but with my luck, one would show up and
decide that it looked neat to play on.
Also, the engine is still sitting there and I don't want the car
crashing down on it, especially if I am the meat in that metal sandwich.

Hopefully it will be gone today and I can push it back over. Then I will
never touch it again, it is all up to the driver after that.

Pat