Hello, I own a 1989 Camaro RS, and i’m swapping the motor. Now let me tell you, i am NOT happy. These cars are SO compact. Great for the design, props to Chevrolet, but HOLY HELL, are they hard to work on. Here’s my issue. I have the motor mounts undone front the engine to the mount. (Not the mount to the subframe) I am aware that the only thing holding the car together is the 2 subframes, and the “middle rail” connected from the transmission all the way to the back of the car. My problem? The transmission won’t slide all the way off the motor backwards towards the *** of the car because that “middle frame rail” is bolted to the floorboard. Okay cool so i’ll just undo the nuts right? Wrong. I undo the nuts, but the heads of the bolts are on TOP. So when i goto take them out of the rail, they hit the floor board? The can’t come out? Please help. I have no clue on if i’m having a blonde moment or what, i just want my motor out.

 

Are you talking about the torque arm bolts on the tranny? The TA is the thing that attaches to the rear/side of the tranny and goes to the rear-end.

Look it over closely, I just took one off a few weeks ago and let the TA go up to the floorboard, seemed easy enough.

But are you trying to pull engine only, engine and tranny, or tranny first then engine? I pulled engine and tranny at the same time, after pulling the MM bolts out, I raised the engine an inch or so, lowered the tranny, then sorta walked the whole thing out.

Now I do have the car up on stands about 10 inches or so, and put an old ATV jack and board under the tranny pan.

I'm to old and fat to do otherwise and it'd be an act of god to get the car over my pit these days.

 

I’m pulling the motor and tranny but i already undid the tranny from the motor, but it wont come all the way off because that rail connected to the rear end. I’m confused on how to get the bolts of that rail out because when i push them “up and out” of there slot, the head of the bolt literally hits the floor board.

 

I didn't have the issue, so do this.

Put a jack under the tranny, remove the crossmember bolts and lower it down-take note of your distributor cap and how close it is to the firewall, best to just pull the distributor out.

 

I believe you are talking about the bolts at the rear of the torque arm that connect to the rear end? Yes, you have to let the suspension drop all the way down to get the long bolts out.

What you should do is remove the bracket from the trans that clamps the front of the torque arm (you can leave it connected to the rear end). The trans should then slide forward off of the torque arm.

 

This video may be of some help:

 

Yes it was the torque arm! I finally got it off, shitty bushings and corroded nuts were my issue. Now another thing, my motor is seized and i cannot turn the fly wheel, and my dumbass already undid the tranny which is separated from the motor about half an inch. Whats my best approach to removing the motor? I can’t undo the torque converter. Any ideas? Thanks for all your help.

 

Torque converter slides over the input shaft of the transmission.

The TC is bolted to the flexplate. The flexplate is bolted to the crankshaft on the engine.

SO in effect you pull the engine out and the TC will come with it. Get some pry bars to assist, between the tranny and block.

 

So i can just pry the tranny from the block? Won’t i need to flywheels or TC disconnected from the tranny to separate the tranny from the motor? Sorry for my lack of knowledge, thats why i’m on this site.

 

That is correct, the better a straight shot you have, the easier it will come. If at an angle (engine v tranny) to each other, the input shaft on the tranny will bind on the TC.

While getting everything out, make sure the tranny is supported and balanced

 

Pull the trans off the engine and out of the car, or pull the engine/trans as one piece. If you try to leave the trans in the car, you'll probably end up with the trans falling out anyway and the lake of ATF on the driveway. The only thing holding the trans aside from the engine is the trans mount, which is usually broken.

 

Speaking of a lake of tranny fluid, I wasn't paying close enough attention the other day pulling mine out (still attached to the engine) and my tranny tailshaft plug snagged the hood latch. Talk about a mess, 6 20lb bags of cat litter to contain it.

Now this was two days after changing the oil in my kids car, it was dark when I got done, guess I forgot I slid the oil pan in front of the car. I walked around front and not only stepped in the oil pan, but caught the side of it...pant leg, boot full of oil...and the driveway as well. Only 3 bags of cat litter to clean that mess up though...