In reply to rdcyclist :
If coming out the top, you need to remove the harmonic balancer. I believe the kool kids install it from below and use the engine hoist to pull it up the last bit. These cars are quite the rabbit-hole.
Look up E-type heater lines if you want a good laugh. I am pretty sure they were the demise of many an otherwise usable E-type back when they were about 10 years old.
SEADave said:I'm surprised no one else brought this up, but many years ago the great Peter Egan wrote on article where, if he thought about buying an E-type, he would run it by another editor at R&T (maybe the late Allan Girdler?)
Anyhow, he had looked at an E-type back when they were cheap with a clunk in the rear end. The next day he came into his office and there laid out on his desk was an exploded view of the rear axle/diff/brake/suspension assembly from an E-type. His explanation was hilarious, and I can only go by memory, but I seem to recall he said imagine if every single person in China was a bushing or a shim or bolt that's about what it looked like. And he also mentioned the litany of special tools that were called for in the manual. Anyhow in the end he did end up getting another E-type that was more expensive and better looked after, and wrote several articles about it. In any case I can't ever think about a Jaguar rear end without thinking of him.
But seriously, we now have the benefit of the internet, youtube, etc. so I would imagine there is a lot better advice out there than he had available to him.
That same column is exactly where my mind went :) Also something about pulling the motor being like a submarine breaching the surface, and how it appeared to be larger than the actual car it came out of.
I don't think for a minute that the random individual has access to better advice than he did at that time - he was plugged into a group of professionals who actively worked on the cars and had decades of fresh experience. "The internet" and YouTube is a much weaker source of information, polluted by errors and inexperience.
Keith Tanner said:Also something about pulling the motor being like a submarine breaching the surface, and how it appeared to be larger than the actual car it came out of.
That was exactly what it was like. The E-type I bought needed a clutch. So I changed it. Took about three solid days of work. I was in the Navy at the time in school at NAS Millington TN. Like I said, 18 and I knew everything (I still wince periodically about some of the E36 M3 I thought I had dicked back then) so I bought it for 2 grand and replaced the clutch. The auto shop there had all kinds of Navy surplus tools and one of them was a killer gantry/chain hoist. The brake was broken in the chain hoist so you'd stick a screwdriver into the chain to hold it in place. Obviously this was a two person job.
I wish a had pictures of that engine/trans hanging from the gantry. I can still see it and it was just like you describe, Keith. Like a cartoon or something: "That came outta there?"
And it was heavy. I think the trans weighed 150 pounds. The housing was made out of real metal, not that aluminum E36 M3. That's why dropping a Ford 302 and an American aluminum housed 4-speed into a Jag meant changing the front spring rates: they were quite a bit lighter than the Jag XK six cylinder and trans, IIRC.
The drivetrain drops out the bottom of the car. You just have to remove the torsion bar plate first.
I would never suggest to anyone that they pull it out the top. Oh hell no.
On a lift, it is pretty easy provided you have a wheeled cart that can hold about 1000lbs.
In reply to Trent :
I don't know about that, Trent, but you probably have way more experience in the field than I do. IIRC, the tub was closed underneath the transmission from the firewall back so the engine/trans had to come out the top. That's also why the engine had to come out instead of dropping the trans to replace the clutch.
Pull the bonnet, take out the seats to access the rear crossmember bolts, yank off all the other E36 M3 around the engine that needed to be yanked (the carbs and the exhaust manifolds did not), and hoist it outta there (I don't recall pulling the harmonic balancer, aka the crank pulley). That is how I did it in 1975. The shop didn't have a lift nor did it have 3 foot jackstands. It was coming outta the top of the car.
I then put it back to together and a day later drove it about 2000 miles to San Jose, CA in two days. Ah, the hubris of youth.
I also came within about a foot of wrapping it around a tree on the first real drive on Millington Road at the right hander past the base. How I did not is probably due to my guardian angel or something. I have no idea how I managed it and the guy riding with me told everybody I was a great driver. I did nothing to disuade this talk at the time but a few years later, a race driving book set me straight: "Managing to successfully recover from mistakes made on the street or the track does not signify a good driver. Avoiding those scenarios is what defines your skill." Point taken.
In reply to Trent :
It would appear that Willian Heynes was the antithesis to Collin Chapman when it comes to automobile design philosophy.
While Chapman's dogma was " “Simplify, then add lightness.” Heynes, chief R&D engineer at Jaguar was more of the school of "Make everything a Rube Goldberg device". then wrap it in a pretty body. I think Heynes would have gotten along famously with Donald Healey.
In reply to NOHOME :
Everything about an E type is form over function. I invite anyone who says otherwise to remove the air filter plenum to carb plate. I'll wait 
To continue off topic
The torsion bars mount to that bridge plate between the oil pan and bellhousing. Just 4 bolts to knock that out and it is wide open to drop everything out the bottom. Intake and carbs have to come off first.
In reply to Trent :
I thank you for the insights and will keep your engine removal method bookmarked.
At this point, I am only planning to go over the rear suspension for this project. However, I was also only planing to do some weld-cleanup and b-pillar work on the Healey project that just drove out of the shop. Project creep is a thing.
Oh man, I'm doing one right now. Things I caught on to that have not been mentioned above:
Measure the thickness of your old brake discs where they interface with the axle flanges. Measure the new ones and match it up so the camber is correct. The car I have apart now had lots of shims between axle and disc. None between disc and differential flange.
Caliper bracket is 3 bolts through the brake disc first. Then take the bracket off the caliper. Watch for the shims, the brackets are usually warped enough to need one.
If the special through bolt at the rear of the radius rod is stuck in the tube within the rubber bush you'll have to saw both sides to remove the arm. The bolt head will still be stuck in the transverse link. If the arm goes free when you loosen the nut you won't have to saw. The bolt head can be retracted by drilling and tapping a hole and pulling it out with a screw and socket. There is enough space to saw the bolt without nicking either the radius arm or the transverse link. I did it Sunday.
The factory manual is clear enough on setting the pre load on the taper roller bearings, you don't need any of the special tools. It is vague about the caliper mounts though, it never says 3 bolts or "bracket".
Frenchy was converting the inner roller bearings to bronze bushings. Sounds like a good idea, but no one is selling a conversion kit that I could find. All those parts on the car I have apart look new, just age, not miles.
Welsh Enterprises, SNG Barrat, Moss in that order. Barrat tends to have some higher quality, but for the Moss level Welsh will be cheaper. Use the Moss and Barrrat websites for pictures and orders, use the phone for Welsh, their website is a labyrinth.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
Thanks for the tips. Those are the kind of things that will help me when I run into them. This seems like a lot of Brit car jobs where advance knowledge of the orders of operation will matter. That and workaround for stuff that goes wrong due to corrosion.
There is a little more to taking out that reaction plate than just take out 4 bolts......it's under tension as the torsion bars that support the 600lb lump of an engine are held by those bolts, the easiest way is to release the top ball joints and front shocks and let the torsion bar relax, but mark everything before you take it apart. The front end splines on the torsion bars are different than the ones on the rear end of the torsion bar, and they are "handed". You don't have to remove the torsion bars, but you need to release the tension in my experience. The cool guys would remove two of the bolts (one on each side), and only knock back the other two far enough to remove the reaction plate. However, many times you couldn't get it back together again. Releasing the ball joints makes it easier......
Mind you I'm writing all this from memory of when I did it on my car in the 90's.....
I did drop the rear assy in the mid-oughts as I replaced the US final drive (3.44) with the "euro" version (3.07) and I never understood what all the sturm and drang was about on replacing rear pads or bleeding the rear calipers. Maybe it was easier on the later models? (I had a '69 FHC)
In reply to MiniDave :
Early cars don't have the little ports in the body shell to reach the pads with the rear subframe installed in the chassis. Once the calipers seize the subframe has to come out and apart as I am doing on a series 1 2+2, which does have the pad change ports. Nohome's job is high mileage, so he needs to go everywhere, and the inner and outer control arm (transverse link) pivots are very dirt sensitive on assembly as well as pre-loaded taper rollers on the outers. New parts require +/- .001" assembly set-up, with shims, time eater.
In reply to slantvaliant (Forum Supporter) :
That was good. Wont play it for the owner, but funny.
Based on how the Healey went ( same friend) this one might just end up in my lap for a lot more than a rear end overhaul. I think he has figured out that if you dump a jig-saw puzzle on the ground in front of me, I will be there until it is put together.
I should seek help.
https://kugelkomponents.com/product-category/jaguar-bushings/
Here's a possible option if you don't feel like dealing with all the bearings and shims
In reply to Racingsnake :
Interesting.
In reply to Trent :
Spitfire/GT6 front camber is pretty easy, just an open end wrench to loosen, and add/remove a simple flat shim.
Use a smartphone with 'Handy Level' app to check camber.
I've done it in minutes.
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