Hey i have an 86 camaro sports coupe with the 305 v8 with 80k miles on it. Tranny was rebuilt around 10k ago. I bought the car after it had been sitting for 2+ years. When i floor it and then let off the throttle theres a loud clunk noise from the front end, could it be a loose engine mount? Like the engine hops up when i floor it and then falls when i let off. Also when i shift into drive from park or into reverse, etc., the tranny shifts really hard. Could that be a loose or bad tranny mount because i know they are only rubber and im not sure if they replaced the mounts when they dropped the tranny to rebuild it, was not my car at the time. Just seeing what you guys think. Im yanking the engine and the tranny this winter to put a 350 in so its not that big of deal but just curious. Any help would be awesome.

 

sounds like the typical broken trans mount. Because our cars use a torque arm connecting the tranny to the rear end, when you floor it, the twisting action of the rear end is carried forward by the torque arm and lifts the trans up!

Pretty common occurance. the best thing to do is fing an aftermarket Poly mount rather than the cheap buna rubber factory ones. Also, if you ever decide to to a tranny swap, this could be cured by using a torque arm bracket that mounts to the crossmember rather than the trans

 

Thanks, i figured something like that. How hard is it to drop the tranny, put new mounts in and then install the tranny again? I'll need a transmission jack to hold it and put it back up, but any tips for the procedure or method of doing it? Should i drain the transmission or something like that? I'm not the best with cars but i learn by doing it. I probably won't swap the trans the 700r4 was just rebuilt and had a shift kit installed and a lot of the muscleheads i talk to say an automatic is better for a muscle car anyways.

 

Well, i can only speak from experience on my car which has a TH350C...

I was able to drive the car up on blocks (so i can slide under it without my gut getting hung up!) and just used a regular floor jack on the tailshaft of the trans to jack it up till it hit the tunnel. From there i had enough room to remove the split mount, slide the new one in, drop the trans onto it and tighten everything up.

It was maybe an hour job from start to finish, in no big rush...

I assume the 700r4 would be just as easy, its the same mount for both trannys.