Todays I made some major progress. The rest of the engine harness was disconnected and labeled, the engine was pulled, and the transmission separated. Working on these VWs is a major learning curve. Lots of time spent between google and the service manual trying to find out what each sensor does as i go so i can label as i unplug. Just trying to make my life easier when i go through the wiring harness later. Stumbling with the “new to me” tripple square drivers was a trip but I managed to get the passenger side CV axle off from under, the drivers side was a little hard to get access to so that would wait till later. The hardest part was trying to find decent mounting points to attach the engine to the cherry picker. At this point my boy showed up and gave me a hand. Once we had the engine supported from above I removed the bottom engine mount then slowly undid the two side mounts making sure we didnt drop it. When the engine was floating on its own I dropped it a bit and cut the exhaust after the flex pipe. We then moved the engine forward a bit to gain access to the drivers side CV. Next up was removing the DSG auto trans and that was an exercise for my brain trying to find the correct combination of tools to reach all the bolts. I had a knocking sound sometimes when idling or decelerating and come to find out that my pilot bearing was in pieces and my flex plate was loose. Super stoked the intermittent tapping was from that and not something internal. When that was done she was finally free! Threw her on the engine stand and called it a day. A very good day.
