Fun story. Picked up a 1991 600F2 parts bike. Pretty bad shape but it had some stuff I needed and between what I needed and what I think I can part out, the price was right to break even.

Was pulling the engine from the frame, had a flat jack under the engine. Pulled the upper rear mounts, pulled the upper and lower through bolts, removed the two forward engine bolts and it just wouldn't slide out. Seemed to be hanging up on something. Checked again and realized that I hadn't removed the chain or the kickstand switch wiring that feeds between the engine and frame, was keeping it from sliding forward. Took those off and it still wouldn't slide out.

Looking it over realized that I hadn't removed the spark plug wires. Pulled them off and as the last one came out the whole engine fell right out onto the floor.

Good to know. The spark plug wires will keep the engine in place. Apparently they act as a last ditch safety even if all other engine bolts have fallen out on the highway.

Thankfully the engine is pretty rusted internally from sitting in the rain for who knows how long with an open airbox (when I say thankfully I mean, of course, that I didn't damage a perfectly good engine but a junk one), and thankfully it didn't appear to damage anything since it was only a fall of about six inches (although I haven't checked the covers closely yet).

Takeaway: No matter how long you've been working on cars and motorcycles it is very easy to get sloppy and overlook something when you are in a hurry to get a "simple" job done.

 

Sounds like the time I got into so much of a hurry I ran to answer the front door when the bell rang and the nice church lady had to nicely ask me to put some pants on......

We all get caught with our pants down sometimes!

 

LOL!!!
I'm surprised the wires didn't snap!!