VIN 11408, getting it back on the road!

Hey Josh,

Yes, your set-up there is good on stability in the sense that it is not too likely to tip over (flat portion of the frame resting on flat cinder blocks/wood). However, it is the strength of the cinder blocks being of concern. Your car may very well never tip over from being imbalanced, but like others mentioned, the cinder blocks are not strong enough to take the load and if or when they fail, there may be no warning.

You can achieve decent balance with jack stands too, you just need to put some extra focus on where you place the wood going between the top of the jack stand and the frame.

It also never hurts to have redundancy, and if you're after something big and flat and stable, you could put whatever amount of wood you want piled in a similar fashion to your cinder blocks under additional corners of the car/frame next to the jack stands.

In order of the materials in which I would trust the strength would be steel, then wood, then cinder blocks. And the cinder blocks are a distant third.

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Originally Posted by David T

The problem with cinder blocks is that they can't take point loads and they will fail catastrophically without warning. I see you have jackstands anyway so use them. The rotors may be cleanable without removing them but the rest of the brake system must be rebuilt. Replace the hoses too. When you do the tranny rebuild or replace the clutch slave cylinder and if you still have the plastic hose, replace it as well. While it is up in the air you might want to also replace the A/C hoses. Inspect the steering bushing and lube the front suspension. Since you removed the half-shafts you may want to lubricate them. Generally I do not recommend doing everything all at once. Too many things apart at the same time and many will get confused or not finish and then parts get lost.
It is also very hard on the budget all at once getting all of those parts. Inspect the radiator especially the left side for green staining. If it is the plastic tank original it should be replaced anyway along with all of the hoses.
David Teitelbaum

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Thanks Dave, that is roughly my plan of attack. The hoses to the calipers will be replaced and the clutch hose will be replaced with the stainless line. Not overly concerned about A/C right now. The front suspension will be regreased and all rubber components checked for cracking. The axles will get re-packed. I know what your saying about taking it all on at once but I want to order my parts in large batches.

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Originally Posted by Jonathan

Hey Josh,

Yes, your set-up there is good on stability in the sense that it is not too likely to tip over (flat portion of the frame resting on flat cinder blocks/wood). However, it is the strength of the cinder blocks being of concern. Your car may very well never tip over from being imbalanced, but like others mentioned, the cinder blocks are not strong enough to take the load and if or when they fail, there may be no warning.

You can achieve decent balance with jack stands too, you just need to put some extra focus on where you place the wood going between the top of the jack stand and the frame.

It also never hurts to have redundancy, and if you're after something big and flat and stable, you could put whatever amount of wood you want piled in a similar fashion to your cinder blocks under additional corners of the car/frame next to the jack stands.

In order of the materials in which I would trust the strength would be steel, then wood, then cinder blocks. And the cinder blocks are a distant third.

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Thanks for the concerns and recommendations. I will take out the blocks and put it on jack stands tonight. So just put a 2x4 on the top of the jack then? If I am not happy with the jacks Ill buy some railroad ties and put them in place of the cinder blocks.

Up on jack stands now. I dont know why I didnt think of putting a piece of wood between the jacks and frame, feels plenty stable now. Just a bonehead moment I guess. Thanks for educating me about the cinderblocks guys!

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Are you planning to remove the engine soon or just the trans? Ill probably get some flak for saying this but I always prefer to remove the engine and trans as one unit rather than just the trans. This goes for nearly every vehicle Ive worked on. Trying to re-spline a heavy transmission to a clutch while holding it over head is never fun or easy. When I pulled the trans out of a friend's D it was huge pain to get out and worse to get back in. Now if the car was on a lift that might be doable.

It is the plan to just drop the trans with the engine intact but I have thought of pulling the whole engine. I do have access to a hoist. Since the coolant will be drained and there is very little wiring that might be a better idea. hmmm you have me thinking here.

.....with all the comments on cinder blocks, but you might want to reconsider wood blocks between jacks and car. I used to use that method until by nearly perfect Audi allroad fell onto stands when wood split. It's now nearly perfect with big dent in bottom. I now use a square piece of 2x12 under jack stands. Great project, can't wait to find my DeLorean. Cheers, Thom

Unless you have 4 rubber isolators up to the task, I'd stick with the wood. The bare jack stands would stress the epoxy on the frame and start to crack it or even bend the frame slightly at the stress points. I use soft pine as my isolator and have been for 14 years. Replace the dedicated pieces every few years as they start to wear out.

Thanks again to the opinions, but I feel pretty confident with the jackstands now. It is a good point the wood could split, so I picked out a half decent board before using the jacks.
Anyway got a little more progress done, removed the exhaust and rear fascia. I wanted to further dabble with the idea of potentially pulling the engine as well as take a closer look at the leak on the front of the block. Does anyone know where this would be coming from? I know its hard to tell from the picture but I figure it may be a common location. I found the belt tensioner to be severely bent. Taking a look at the adjustment it looks like this was inevitable. Also took a look at the engine wiring. I will have to get out my soldering iron and tidy up some of the connections.

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From some quick searching it looks like my timing cover gasket is the culprit. So I will be taking the cover and the valve covers off and replacing all those gaskets. Feel free to correct me I'm wrong!

With that much oil by the water pump its quite possible there is a good amount of oil in the valley too. It was much easier to hook up the hoist with the intake manifold removed.