Disconnect the battery cables
Drain the oil from the engine and drain the coolant from the system. Also, a few days before you start, spray all of the bolts to the bumper (including those in the fenders) with WD-40 or PB Blaster (my preference). Do this a few times as these bolts are going to be cold-welded together.
Support the vehicle firmly on jackstands–high enough that you can crawl under it, but not so high that you can’t drop the engine down onto a dolley (or is it dolly?).
First, undo the axle bolts from the wheels. If you drain the tranny beforehand, you can disconnect the half shafts from the transaxle as long as you plan to replace the seals (not a bad idea).
Disconnect any of the wires going to the engine and the transmission. Be careful and label these as it gets super-easy to forget what these wires were way back when you took them off. Also, disconnect the speedo cable. Check the top of the transaxle with a flashlight to make sure there’s nothing you’ve missed. Be sure you’ve disconnected the ground strap from the transmission to the body (located near the starter).
Clean the shift connection and mark the location of the shifter linkage while connected to the transaxle shift linkage with a Sharpie. This will ease installation, since there is play designed into this to allow one to readjust their shifter. Swing this clear out of the way of the transaxle (as it can be knocked while the engine is being lowered and rolled out).
Remove all of the heat shield panels beneath the engine.
Everything should now be removed from underneath the car now, with the exception of the two bolts holding the tranny in place.
Disconnect everything from the top of the engine compartment now. It’s not a bad idea to remove the engine lid, but be careful: If the bolts won’t unscrew then stop. You run the risk of breaking the welds holding the hinge in place. Personally, I recommend removing the carburettor as it’s a relatively delicate instrument and now’s a good time to do a tear down of it anyway. On the other hand, I’d keep the distributor cap on because you’ll be replacing this, and it can protect the distributor components.
Be sure you remove the wires going to the starter.
Remove the large strap holding fan shroud to the radiator so that the whole assembly can be pulled off the radiator.
This can happen at any point in the next couple of steps, so do the following when you feel like it, but, remove the bumper. Hopefully, all of the PB Blaster has loosened those bolts. Otherwise, you’re looking at having to crack them and re-tack welding new nuts in place (which I had to do).
Thanks to Jeff Stich for additional tips. You can view his website at http://home.earthlink.net/~fiat850/ .
If you have a trolley jack, you’re in good shape. Otherwise, you a dolly cart or a kid’s wagon (like a Red Flyer) and support the engine on it with blocks.
Disconnect the bolt mounting the engine to the rear panel. If I recall correctly, the engine will continue to rest there.
Remove the rear panel, making certain you label each of the wires going to the lights. They all look the same, and the colors don’t really have a logical pattern. On top of that, it matters which terminal each connector goes to on the lights.
Now, your engine should be resting on the cart with the tranny being support by the mounting bolts. Go ahead and work those out, trying to make sure the engine doesn’t tip up into the engine bay.
You should be ready to pull the engine out now and have fun working on it.