Then the goal was to restart the engine, which didn’t run for years. After a general checkup, replacement of all fuel hoses, maintenance of the ignition distributor (mainly by restoring the capacitors wiring) and two long cleaning sessions of all carburetors, the engine was able to run again.
The car reached its normal height, that’s good news. Hydraulics seem in pretty good shape, that’s good news also.
The compression ratio measurement shows good results, between 900 and 950 kPa for a nominal value of 900 (9 bars or around 130 PSI). This is encouraging, so it should not be necessary to take the engine apart.
After having the engine running again, I start disassembling to remove everything in the engine compartment. By the end of 2003, I take advantage of parents being here to remove the engine, gearbox and both front half-axles. Half-axles have been very difficult to remove, we used a hammer, a blowtorch and a crowbar to painfully remove them.
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I start by making some space around the engine
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The engine works, and we have lift-off 😉
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The car works well enough to drive it out and then back in the garage in the right direction
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Beginning of the disassembling operation
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The engine and gearbox removed
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That’s not very pretty in there
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Now I don’t have much space around the car
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After all hydraulic piping removed, the front unit is empty