8/17/11 Out with the Old

Over the weekend I tried to pull my engine. In order to remove an engine from a car, there are a number of things that need to be disconnected. One by one I removed the exhaust, fuel lines, coolant lines, vacuum lines, throttle linkage, speedometer cable, shifter, alternator and starter wiring, engine mount, transmission mount.

I disconnected all of these things and, towards the end of the day, started to lift the engine out of the car (can you see where this is going?). At this point, the engine and transmission weigh more than the whole rest of the car. As I was hoisting, I noticed, albeit a bit late, that the car was starting to come up with the engine. Suddenly, the rear of the car fell off the jackstands. This sounds quite a bit worse than it actually was, as I was able to pick up the rear of the car by myself and stand it back up, but it was startling nonetheless. I wrestled with the engine a bit trying to figure out why it was stuck, thinking that the transmission was catching on the transmission tunnel.

It turns out I forgot to disconnect one thing: the clutch line. Of course I didn't figure this out until I went back with a fresh mind on Monday.

Once I clipped the clutch line, the engine came out pretty easily.

Today I installed a HID (High Intensity Discharge) headlight kit on my SV. I thought my lights weren't as bright as I would like for night riding and bought this kit to fix it.

This is what the beam looked like before.

I then installed the new HID bulbs into my round housings. This also presented a great chance to use my milling machine to open up the small round hole in the back of the housing into a square(ish) hole so the new plugs could fit through!

After!

Also, new motorcycle jacket.

-W.W. SBSS