Alh engine removal

Hey Guys,

I am working on putting in another motor on my 03 Golf TDI with a 5 speed. I have the whole front end off, A/C components off to the side, and pretty much everything ready to pull it out the front except the transmission side.

My questions are:

What do I need to take off the tranny? There are a lot cables there.
Do I need to pull the starter off?
Do I need to pull the axles off the tranny or wheels?
I assume it would be easier to detach the tranny after its out of the car.

Thanks in Advance,

Phil

Axles at the tranny, on the trans there is shifter cables to remove, slave cylinder connection, a few wires, speed sensor at the back, and motor mounts. If you remove the clips for the shifter, then its just two or three bolts and you can pull it up and out of the way (hold it back with a bungee or something).

Pull as one unit, remove the starter and trans after its out..

Thank you very much.

There's also the things that are pretty easy to see, such as the coolant lines. There's a pair to and from the radiator, to and from the heater, and the lines to and from the coolant recovery tank (coolant ball - small on top and larger on bottom). That assumes you're keeping the EGR cooler and associated plumbing intact and on the head.

Fuel lines to and from the injection pump to fuel filter.

Electrical to and from the battery at the alternator and starter, but I suppose you could lump these with all the other electrical plugs and cables which I couldn't begin to quantify.

I sometimes like to use masking tape to wrap on both ends of a cable that you are unplugging and write a label on each side. You wouldn't even have to identify it - just write the same number or letter label on each side to make sure the correct cables get plugged back together. Lots of them have subtle differences (check a couple of O2 sensor plugs on some other car, for example) for the same number of connectors, but other times there is just another of the same connector, and a label keeps you from having to think about it too much.

Good luck!

PH

Take a pic of how the wiring harnesses go so it's super easy to know it goes back.

Thanks for all the help. I did get the motor out relatively easy, except for I broke an axle and I had to cut the dog bone mount. Does anyone have any tricks to get that mount off the sub frame? I tried putting a slit in it and prying it and I even had my wife pound on it with a sledge hammer while I was holding a pry bar with no luck. I can't believe how welded on it is.

There's two bolts that hold it in, did you take them out?

Oh yeah, they snapped off pretty easy so I just have the studs there.

philipvitale said:

Oh yeah, they snapped off pretty easy so I just have the studs there.

Click to expand...

I could have guess it... a Michigan car.

Usually the passenger side bolt is more willing to unscrew but the driver's side seizes up in the dogbone's mount hole. I sacrifice the dogbone and use a sawzall to cut the dogbone base right next to the bolt. Then, either a dead blow hammer, or torch or both can loosen up the mount from the bolt.

A torch by itself sometimes fails to free the bolt. I've practically melted the dogbone mount base at times and it still holds firmly.

Once the mount is off, the broken bolt will usually unscrew rather effortlessly from the subframe.

I finally got it, i had to cut that dogbone into 3 pieces to get it out. It was so stuck I ended up unscrewing both bolts with a piece of the mount still attached. Now for the last challenge, I am transferring the oil filter housing and of of course I stripped 2 of the 4 5 mm allen bolts.