Gearbox Removal

[iainrobe30]

Good evening all,

Looking for some advice on how feasable it is to remove a gearbox at home and what issues i may face? Needing new main shaft bearings and need to get the gearbox off and to him as there is no room for car storage at his workshop. I shall be having the assitance of a good mechanic to help but would like your feedback as to the scale of the job and what i may face.

Appreciate your comments and replies,

Kind Regards

Iain

[nrubenstein]

It's not that hard. My general approach is to support the engine from the top (or if you are on jack stands, you can use a jack on the oil sump), disconnect the subframe and drop the whole thing down an inch or so. This gives you loads of room to get your e-torx sockets on the bolts. You will need enough extension to get over the transmission and a wobble bar. NOT a U-joint unless you want to suffer. Seriously, wobble bars changed my life.

[Ironhead]

It is not really difficult....actually pretty easy.

A few points:

• You will need a jack and jackstands that can lift the car up fairly high, because the tranny needs to come out from the bottom.
• I think it is far easier to take the tranny and bellhousing out as an assembly, because the tranny/bellhousing nuts are somewhat difficult to get at when the tranny is in the car. I also think it is easier to reinstall the tranny/bellhousing as an assembly.
• Buy the cheap scissors style tranny jack from Harbor Freight. It is only around $40...works great for this job....and I have used it for all sorts of things from diffs to moving engine blocks around. One of the best purchases I ever made for the money.

Other than that, you will just need a good assortment of sockets and extensions, as well as Torx sockets for some of the bellhousing to engine block bolts.

[iainrobe30]

Thanks for the feedback guys, didnt think it would be too difficult a job for a novice mechanic!!

[fronton]

I am also preparing to do this but thought it would be easier to get at just the four bolts form the tranny to bell housing. These four are very accessible once the clutch slave is out of the way (HATE that slave top bolt). Is it more difficult to align the shaft into the clutch once reinstalling though?

[jimmy p.]

See I think our 2 piece setup its WAY,,, WAY easier to just pull the trans.
I am always surprised when people say pull it together.
I personally always do it as two pieces, Trans, then bellhousing, then engine if I am going that far.

I like a thin crescent (half moon shape) wrench to hit the top nuts and I think a box wrench for the two bottom ones.
I have one wrench I use just for these trans nuts.

I think I use the 19mm crescent one on 3 of the 4 nuts.
You will want a fine tooth flex head Gear Wrench for the top of the trans mounts

Lube the slides on the trans cross member, like spray them with brake cleaner, then loads of WD40 or better, clean them out so they are shiny.
Drop the exhaust
Drop the driveshaft
Disconnect shifter & linkage
Disconnect reverse light sender
Remove Slave Cylinder
Remove (4) 19mm nuts on transmission
Put your trans jack or whatever you are using for this under the trans
Support rear of engine
Remove the (4) 13mm crossmember nuts
Try to slide the trans straight back (unless it comes out a lot, it probably will not budge).
You will probably want a chisel or a pry bar to get it started.
Then when it does slide back, just slide straight back until it clears the bellhousing hole and lower.

It sounds like alot of steps,,, but I honestly think I can have the trans on the ground in my race cars in under an hour (these have been done alot so everything moves really easy).

After its out, take the time to remove the T nuts from the body and really clean and lube the cross member slides.
That really makes the job easy going back in.

[fronton]

Nice, this is what I was planning on doing and just leaving the bell housing attached to the engine the entire time.