Putting the engine back

[Miles]

I'm having a bit of trouble getting my motor back in my car. I can't seem to get the half-shafts to engage properly in the drive cups so the whole thing is off centre.

You can see here that the bolt for the motor mount is about 1" away from the hole. I'm not exactly sure what's going on inside the CV boot, but I surmise that the axles are just not going in.

Any tips are welcome!



The axle on the right side is behind the driver cup.



Also, would the lack of these small flaps cause my heater problems?

[tom]

Take the axles off. First drop in the engine and bolt it on then install the front axles.

[Miles]

Thanks for the tip Tom, I wasn't able to get the axles out completely (I couldn't undo the brake calipers ), but I managed to undo the ball joints from the upper and lower control arms and then line the axle up so that it was going in straight. Once aligned, I heaved on it and it popped in. Once I had one side in, the other side decided that resistance was futile and went in without even unbolting the bottom control arm (I broke my 14mm socket on one of the bolts )

My car is just about ready to roll again!

I still need to fix my dipstick problem and see if I can find a replacement exhaust manifold (or have mine welded).