Need some help on a tranny swap

[calebz]

ok.. tonight I pulled a 5 speed 4wd tranny out of an EA82T wagon. I got it out, but it did not go as well as it could have. I have to pull another one tomorrow or friday, then install one either the same or following day.

 

I know what has to be disconnected.. the problem I am having is that the lowering of the trans to the ground was.... rocky at best. Finding the right balance was impossible.. ended up using the jack and a couple of ropes secured to various places on the car to lower it down.. even that did not go so well..

 

I have a 3 ton floor jack with a 21 inch lift, but a rather small cup.

 

Does anyone with experience have any suggestions that might make this next pull less ... frightening?

 

And even more worrisome, does any one have suggestions on getting the damn thing back in to the car by myself with only my floorjack and some ropes?

Also.. I am doing this singlehandedly...(well, I have both of my hands, but no others to help)

[GLCraig]

I would recommend renting a 3 ton floor jack, the larger cup and wider base will help quite a bit. Sometimes you can also get an adapter plate that you can secure a transmission too.

[the sucker king]

hang the tranny from the body of the car (at various points in the engine bay) with ratchet straps. make sure the ratchets are placed so you can tighten or loosen if need be. god bless ratchet straps.

[GeneralDisorder]

Loop a rope around the output at the rear of the tranny, and lift it up a little - not all the way, just so it will be slanted about the right angle to slide onto the tranny. The rope can go up through the cab, over the drivers seat, and just slam it in the car door..... then get under there, and position yourself under the tranny with your head toward the rear of the car. Manhandle the thing onto the engine, and with a bit of patience, and a breaker bar on the crank pully that you can operate with your foot, you should be able to slide it on.... I've done this before. It wasn't easy, but I did the job. No jack used at all. Car was on jack stands of course.

 

As for removal. I try to make the "landing" area soft under the car. If your working by yourself, it's going to DROP out, and as long as I put down some padding, I've never had a problem there.

 

GD

[Svengouli7]

Hi Caleb. I had some luck w/ a come along attached to the header of the garage door (someone left an eye bolt in there) and rope going though bay and tied on the end of the tranny. kinda like the ratchet strap idea. couple ups and downs and i was able to lean into the bay, and kinda lift and work it it that way. Good luck.

[mcbrat]

see my post on this thread:

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=14387&highlight=wood

[Dr. RX]

I just get under the tranny and muscle it down and out. If I'm at a wrecking yard I get a rear seat out of one of the cars and let the tranny drop on that. Installing it is the same way, I get under the tranny and lift it up into place. If it doesn't slide in at first, there is plenty of colorful language that fills the air.

 

If you aren't use to doing it this way, I would suggest using a floor jack.

[MorganM]

Just pulled a 2WD 5speed the other day. Found it rather easy getting it READY to pull but actually getting it out, like you said, was rocky at best. What I ended up doing was having my friend push on the motor from the front, thus releasing a lot of tension on those lower bellhousing studs, and me pulling from the rear.

 

I wraped my pull strap around the back of the trans and pulled fromt he rear of the vehicle so I was yanking straight and not to one side. She pretty much flopped on the floor when he pushed and I pulled

 

If you are by yourself put a jack upto your oil pan and jack the engine up so it tilts crank pully up / flywheel down. Wrap a strap or chain around the trans. Run the strap out the back and pull from there. As noted above have something padded for it to fall on Wood, blanket, pallet, whatever. I use thick old movers blankets.

 

Good luck!

[moosens]

Bingo! Corky is the man with the correct answer in my opinion.

 

Caleb,I am doing the same dawg gone thing to my same dawg gone car you have at the same dawg gone time....dawg!!!

 

Here's what I have done.I now own a decent enough 2 1/2 ton shop crane(engine lift) :cool: .....for $119 at PoopBoys you can't go wrong-legs can fold up-totally bitchin.

Crank up the driver's side w/floor jack,works best for me,use them jacks stands!!,***slide the tranny under the crossmember(must be jacked fairly high,little diagonal wiggle,etc.-being careful of the actuator),lift the bellhousing end up onto the crossmember using brute force and ignorance to a degree.By that I mean don't have both feet on the ground.Use the crossmember as a brace and save your back.The tranny is fairly light.Don't forget that when you lift the front up that any gear oil in it will drip out the back....oh,boy can I tell you about that...

 

Have the tranny a good few inches onto the crossmember,not just barely on the lip at the rear edge of the crossmember.Also once it's up there tie it off to the rad. support so it won't slop back at you when you're under the car.

 

 

Then as the CorkMeister said gityoassunduhthere and benchpress-you even get to go one handed for a few seconds while you reach for the blocks you brought under the car with you to help prop it up for a second.I used two bricks-being of Italian decent-and then *could have gotten a jack to help* but muscled it up and in-being of Italian decent. ....like that but with happy results.

 

Have those rubber mounting disks and bolts ready ...like you don't know this...e bouno riparazione!!!

Ciao

[RickOregon]

Boy, I'm glad I found this post! Great ideas and lots of different approaches to getting a tranny in and out. I've got all kinds of options! This is great. Thanks for all these techniques in one post.. I'm just getting ready to help our son replace his tranny out in North Dakota, so if I end up going out there from Oregon and doing the job, this information will help a lot. Much obliged, -Rick

[froggymike]

Me with the $500 87 T-Wag here... and doing the same thing. Just waiting for the exaust to cool down. I like the idea of crane assist. I'm gonna use that one. When I repalced the complete rear axle on my 94 toyota PU, I used a skate board to take out the old and role in the new. I'll let you guys know if I come up with any fun cheats or work-arounds.

[operose]

in the middle of a "taking-forever" tranny swap as well... car happens to be an hour away from where I live and work.. doesn't give me much time to work on it. I was wondering what I was going to do if'n there weren't none-o-them good 'ole boys around to help me muscle that sucker out of/in there

[MilesFox]

take out the pitch bar or loosen the bolt and let the assembly pitch back. you can shove a block of wood between the motor and the top of the raduator bracket between the p/s reseroir to keep the motor from falling forward once its out.

 

i also find it easier to leave the shifter connected to the tranny when pulling it or installing it, just take out the bolt between the shift lever itself and its actuator

 

have fun

[froggymike]

Whoa. Thanks Miles. I didn't think of the possibility that the engine might pitch forward. And yes, the swap is going to take three to five times longer than planned. But that seems to be the way of it with "Murphy" the Turbo Wag.

 

PS. When I'm hauling my band stuff to and from practice and / or gigs, it becomes "Murphy" the band-wagon:-)

[MilesFox]

the last time i did a tranny i fremoved the pitch bar to take out hte tranny. then i installed it tilted farthest back and tightened it to install the tranny. once the tranny was bolted to the motor i loosened the pitch bar bolt and bolted up the tranny crossmember, then tightened the pitch bar last

[scrapdaddytatum]

muscle it...

lay flat on back

use a phone book for padding

if you can dead lift one of these trans

you can get it in and out by yo self

[4WDFrenzy]

Hey Caleb, when Spencer(the previous owner of my GL-10) helped me change the clutch and cv axles, we lowered the whole tranny, and then removed it. I'll put it to you this way, it is always good to have a second set of hands(preferably mechanically inclined ones) around when performing this task. If I were still in Texas, I'd lend you a hand(or two in this case). We drained the tranny first, kinda by accident. Spencer decided that it would be a great idea to lower the rear of the tranny while he pryed it away from the engine with a prybar. Well, as you know, the tailshaft seal isn't exactly the most leak or spill-proof part of the transmission. So as you can guess, I got a freakin' 80w90 gear oil bath!!! But I guess I can Thank GOD for little miracles, because it was heck of alot easier to manuever without all that gear oil in it.

Anyway, my point is recruit some help. It will make things a ton easier.

[calebz]

If I were still in Texas, I'd lend you a hand(or two in this case).

 

Thanks for the offer of help patrick. Got it pulled and replaced about 14 months ago;)

 

Someone else ressurected the tread for help

[4WDFrenzy]

Okay, now I just feel stupid(*face turning 10 shades of red*)!

[Mike W]

I just recently did a solo tranny swap in my Legacy and now that it's over I can actually say it was practically a piece of cake. I'm too outa shape for this bench press crap so I cheated and bought a $49.99 scissor lift transmission jack from Harbor Freight. The automatic tranny was a heavy sucker and pretty much maxed out the jack capacity but boy it worked so sweet! The jack was it was a little flexy when all the way up but that just helped me move the trans into position. It could have more tilt in the head but tilting the engine with a floor jack takes care of that. If I get around to it I'm going to make a turnbuckle pitch stopper for tilting the engine since I hear that's how shops do it. The jack also works pretty good as a mig welder cart. I put a piece of plywood under and over the welder, cut a hole in the top plywood for the gas bottle, strapped it too the jack and voila! instand welder cart.

[diluded000]

(dust cobwebs off old post here)

 

I just swapped in a D/R tranny for my pushbutton 4WD and did it a little different. I got an engine hoist and pulled the motor and transmission as a single unit, then swapped transmissions on the floor. I needed help putting the mated assembly back in, but it worked for me. Never having done it the other way, I can't say if this was easier or not. I don't think I could bench press a transmission in or out by myself. I would most likely lay a 2x4 across the fenders and move it with a strap clamp and jack, like I did when I aligned the mounts.

 

- James Brauer

[MilesFox]

how high were you jackstands, and was the motor/tranny unit tilted 45 deg or more? i did it once this way and i had all kinds of hell clearing the spare tire well, had to remove the swaybar(ea81) and jack the car up all crazy just to get the rigght angle on my motor.

 

 

if i wanted to pull the motor and tranny as a unit again i would find it easier to drop the whole crossmember and suspension assembly

[diluded000]

As chance would have it I measured the jackstands at 21". My jackstands are getting a bit unsteady, and I had to make a 2" plywood sandwich to rest them on to get this high. I have been eyeing the 6-ton stands that go up to 24". With the lift I have to use spacers on the jack and jackstand just to get the wheels off the floor, so I need to upgrade.

 

Getting the assembled unit back in was a major PITA. It was tilted at about 45 degrees, and went in with much twisting, cussing, and prying. I left the transmission xmember attached for doing this. Since I had the engine hoist, I should have dropped the motor/trans assy and put a chain on my tube bumper to lift the body off of it. But I learn the hard way. I just wanted to get the motor back in enough to test the new D/R, and drive it while I work on a turbo motor.

 

So how would you recommend I get a turbo motor pulled at the pick-n-pull? Do I need to drag that 200 lb hoist through 100 yards of dirt to get to the motor, or can I strap the motor to a 2x4 and wrestle it out that way. I think either way it is going to be more manual effort than I like to undertake in direct sunlight.

 

- James B

[MilesFox]

depending on how cooperative the yard man is you can do like i did

 

i hauled a junk soob to the yard, to junk the body but i was keeping everything else. we stripped the interior to the bone first.

 

i towed the car to the yard with my towbar, took it back and jacked it up, took out the strut/knuckle/hub assy, and the rear end assembly

 

then i dropped the crossmember and tranny mount from under the vehicle

 

i had the yard man pick the body up off the car and haul it away. he then came back and used the tard truck to lift themotr/tranny/crossmember assembly and i backed the truck up underneath, broke down the remaining parts and loaded them

 

mind you i had everything pre loosened before the yard, and the yard man was cool and the yard not very busy, i made short work of it within 2 hours tops

 

but if you can get the yard man out in the fork lift then i would just have it done like i did

 

if you have a buddy to help you can pull the motor by hand. jack the tranny up so the motor mounts come above the fram

 

its easier to lift a moto by hand if you take everything off the top first, to make it light as possible. a short block can be wrestled out by 2 people easily.

 

i myself wrestled a motor out by myself, taking it down what i could and prying it out with a 2xr. off to the side, and loading it into a sedan, boy was that fun

[MorganM]

 

So how would you recommend I get a turbo motor pulled at the pick-n-pull? Do I need to drag that 200 lb hoist through 100 yards of dirt to get to the motor, or can I strap the motor to a 2x4 and wrestle it out that way. I think either way it is going to be more manual effort than I like to undertake in direct sunlight.

 

- James B

 

Wresteling it out with out the picker is going to be just as much work as rolling the picker over and pulling it that way Local U-Pull yard here has these HUGE pickers; about 20' tall made out of 4x4 box steel. They use spare tires on casters at all 4 corners. Real fun moving those buggers around in a foot of snow and ice!