Removal Process
Well, I will be heading down to work on the car and finish it up next weekend, so i guess I should get this out of the way first.
Removing the tranny and necessary parts. Its basically a strip-fest - just pull the parts off and toss them aside, gently... except the bolts, keep track of them.
First off is the exhaust, one of the three hardest things to do. And all because the nuts on the manifold end are tough to get off because the angle, distance and rusted. I think i mentioned before that extensions are your best friend in this tranny swap task; well universal joints and rounded socket joints are needed just as much. (sorry if i got the terms wrong, i dunno what they are called but i think you can figure it out)
The top pipes would come straight towards the camera, so its not easy access to a couple of the bolts. To give you an idea, an extension long enough to go through the large hole in the control arm with a universal joint near the end is what will do the trick. It might help to soak the manifold nuts in Liquid Wrench or fine oil sprays to loosen them.
The manual says to just push the pipes out of the way, well that’s not gonna happen, so just unplug the o2 sensor and dismount muffler from rear and remove exhaust in entirety.
Everything up to the tranny removal is cake. Remove cross brace and the drive shaft/heat shield exposing the drive shaft.
To remove the drive shaft... obviously, unbolt at the rear differential and at the guibo, preferably the guibo from the tranny because you wont want it there later on. Then to drop it out, unbolt the middle support.
Whoop! looks like i have a bit of a leak!! Not worried, probably rebuilding that soon.
Next up is to start messing with stuff that has ATF in it, so better try and get rid of as much as possible. Plug is at the back, but might as well unbolt the tranny support bar from the car and pull down on the end of the tranny so the fluid comes to the back. The block will touch the firewall, which is where you’ll want it to be for the rest of the procedures.
While its draining, dismount the auto shift linkage. Once done draining, move the drain pan on over to the ATF fluid lines where you will remove two from tranny end.
Once done draining, it should be ok to remove the other ends from the radiator. To get them out of the car is a puzzle, but its possible. Last thing before starting on the main mount bolts is the cruise control cable. I took it off from the throttle body, if you see a better way, have at it.
.........now on to the tranny. This was the worst part of the removal process, im reluctant to go through it again, so much as type it into words, lol. I don’t have any pics for this part, but there wasn’t anything to really see well as you will be using that three-foot ratchet extension i mentioned earlier.
NOTE: Make sure your Torx sockets are firmly in place before trying to torque down on them. Its even good to have a helper push the ratchet to the bolt while you get on it because they can strip and you DONT want that to happen. You will need a breaker bar unless you are Arnold Schwarzenegger, but just because my dad sounds like him doesn’t mean he is as strong.
Extra Note: The Bently manual has a differnt procedure for the next few steps; it might be worth looking up. Im just posting how we did it... thinking it was the best way. Heck, you better have the Bently manual anyway if you are considering something of this magnitude anyhow.
Bottom of tranny, remove three M8 Torx bolts. Then the two M12's left and right of those. On the top of the tranny there are 4 Torx bolts, two M12's where you can see, from the next picture below, they go into the engine block. Just to the left are two M10's that have nuts on the other end holding the starter motor on. Once broken lose, you will need to figure a way to keep the nuts from spinning to get the bolts out because its really hard to reach anything near that area. Completely remove all 9 bolts; the tranny will not fall... trust me. On the right side on the front, there is a flathead screw holding on a metal shield to the bell housing. That will stay with the engine so remove the screw.
At this point, you could brace the engine in its tilted back state so it doesn’t try to rest forward making it a bit harder to get the bell housing past the torque converter. I am guessing this was the issue we had. So between the two of us (my dad and i), we manhandled that thing off the engine. It will weight a little more than the manual gears. This might be a common scene.
(it looks to me like i got so sick of wrestling it i broke the extension over the transmission, killing it. yes, it broke two of my 1/2 inch extensions... bastard)
Third and last hard part is getting the three bolts off the starter wheel bolting the torque converter on, located between the gear and engine block. We didn’t have a box end wrench large enough to fit and there wasn’t room for a socket wrench!!
So we ground down the end of the socket, rotated the end (which is tough with compression on the cylinders) to fit the socket on at the top of the block. Then rotated it down to the side and inserted a pivot extension. I think there was real limited room in that area, but a breaker was, once again, needed. Also, there has to be someone at the end of the drive shaft to hold it in place from rotating. This can be easily done by using a ratchet extension inserted into the groove of the drive shaft as a lever. Repeat for the other two bolts. Mind you, the torque converter is a heavy shit!!! It will slide off the end but get some help unless you are fully under it ready for the weight. Oh, not to mention, its full of ATF too.... i think it coming off was a funny scene in the shop because it ended in a, "oh shit" kinda surprise... you know, with the fluid and weight and all, lol. Man, im aggravated again just thinking about it.
Last thing are the eight bolts that hold the starter wheel on. They came off nicely with an air ratchet. I think, if you break them loose quick enough by a hand ratchet and breaker, they should come out.
Before you go assembling things again, its suggested you replace the rear main gasket and crank shaft seal. That is if you got them with a suggested kit i mentioned earlier. Its easy tho, eight bolts, replace gasket and seal, make sure surfaces are clean, re-bolt in opposite rotational manner at some torque that i ignored... much like i plan to do on the rest of the install process unless someone suggests otherwise in the next 5 days, lol.
We completed all of this, allong with some time to lift and lower the car, scratch our heads at some things, run to the store once, and clean up the huge mess within about 7 hours.
