It took a few hours but removing the engine was pretty straightforward.

The job I was most worried about was getting the torsion bars out.  Fortunately the last person to remove them must have put plenty of Never Seize on the splines as they came out with just a few taps. The hardest part was getting all the new ball joints to come apart.

Removing the exhausts provided a surprise; the big pin that supports the rear of the gearbox had fallen out and was sitting between the mufflers.  As I only replaced the exhaust a couple of months ago this must have been a recent event. The gearbox support plate looked like an archaelogical survey of the car's life.

I built a trolley to support the engine and used the hoist to lift the car up off the engine.  Ron came round to help, probably to make sure that I didn't drop the car on myself.

It all went like clockwork.  I didn't even need to take the water pump or clutch slave off.

 It's a really big heavy thing. Hopefully I'll have it all stripped in the next week or so.