Day 8 ~ Engine Removal [part 2]

   Another long day at work with only a couple hours to "play" at the end . . . and the engine is out! Wow, those half shafts took a while for me to get all the bolts out with that M10 triple square bit. That and I had to mess around with the jack stands a bit. I tried to jack the car up from the K-member but with all the weight gone in the rear, it kept wanting to tip over on the nose. Time to call for some help from my lovely assistant. "Sit on the back for me, Babe, while I get this car all situated." Sometimes just having some company makes it all seem more fun, and sometimes it's just plain not safe without a helper. I'm not counting the half hour it took us to figure out where the heck to put the motor/tranny combo as I don't have any room in the garage to even get it around the Jetta to the rear. So, we decided to hoist it while still on the cherry-picker up into the bed of my Dakota. Then I had to find the right angle to rest it so as not to bend or break anything that I'll still be needing. I strapped it down good and will take it down to the shop to swap the motors and work on refurbishing the setup there sometime in the future.
  Meanwhile, I have still a bit of piping and hardware to remove, but I'm exhausted, and need to read up on some earlier beta's notes to make sure I don't waste any time removing something that may stay. Regardless, I got an email off to Mark, and he's gonna get with me to clarify any questions so I can prepare for the final cuts tomorrow. I'm leaving the whole evening for the unexpected "that's still in my way doggone it!" pieces, but I'm still planning to have all my final cuts done Saturday.
  Can't wait to get some parts back on the car! But I'm not going to rush-job it. I'll make sure things are clean and tidy a bit, so I don't have a mess underneath when I'm all done. But that's the way I am . . . try to do it right the first time even when it takes extra time up front (up to a balance point, no one's looking to waste time here). It will be worth it later. I'll get some more pics taken and uploaded tomorrow so I can edit this post and bring in a little flavor.
  = )