There is a saying in carpentry. Measure twice cut once. The same can be said about maintenance. Read the procedure twice perform it once or more appropriately – do it right the first time. It is especially true if you have never performed the task before.
Luckily today there is a lot of information available other than just repair manuals thanks to the internet. So instead of reading about it you can watch someone actually go through the process of doing it. Which makes for a great visual reference.
Other than videos, there is also first-hand account information through forum posts that provide a wealth of knowledge and experience gained from similar situations. And lastly, there are blog posts which present the information in a different format.
With that said, I must admit that this was my first time installing an engine onto an automatic transmission. So I did the above mentioned. I read through the repair manual several times and researched “how to” through internet searches.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find an example for removing the engine with my particular vehicle. The repair manual was vague and was basically a guideline that could be applied to any car and not an exact step by step procedure. So I had to rely on past experiences which up to now have only been with manual transmissions.
So I treated it the same way as you would with a manual transmission. I left the torque converter connected to the flywheel instead of detaching it and leaving it on the transmission. As I would later find out was not the correct way and a costly mistake.