Can I pull the engine without disconnecting the Torque converter from the flex plate? It will be alot easier to get the T/C off the flexplate with the engine out of the car.

I am not removing the tranny, just the engine. I have always removed the 3 bolts from the flexplate to the converter in the past, but it is a pain in the butt. I just don't want to tear anything up.

Thanks in advance!

Btw my car is a 91RS with a 700R4 and a one piece main seal V8.

 

yes you can leave the TC connected to the flex plate, if you think that's easier. why not unbolt it from the flex plate at the same time you unbolt the trans. it's not that much effort and a lot cleaner way to do it. if you don't mind the oil then pull it with the engine

 

I haven't removed the engine on my camaro yet, but I have pulled a 305 from a 79 C10 with a TH350 tranny. It was not easy getting the torque converter bolts off at all with the engine still in.

The engine had to be rotated just right for every bolt, and trying to slip a wrench behind the flexplate and over the T/C was a nightmare. Installing the bolts like that was an even bigger nightmare.

Thanks for confirming that I can pull the engine with the T/C still attached.

 

I did that when I helped a guy do a 2.8/2.8 swap. The original 2.8 melted due to a cracked oil pan, and the motor was siezed up. So we couldn't rotate the motor to get to all the TC bolts. The tc popped off the trans input shaft and the motor swung forward- good thing we removed the radiator. http://www.geocities.com/tomp_3rdgen

Then we had to destroy the flywheel with a sawzall (and also destroyed a few blades) to get a wrench to all the torque convertor bolts.

 

Remove the bolts first.It only takes a few minutes.You will never be able to line up the converter in the trans pump if you put it back together with the converter bolted to the motor.Keep it simple.

 

Took a couple hours last time I did that. It was on a 79 truck with a TH350. The camaro is lower with even less room to work.

I will have to put the bolts back in later, I know this, I wasn't thinking about bolting the engine back in witht the TC attached.

 

never timed myself but i'd guess 15 minutes would be a long time for TC bolts and i would say they're very hard to get to or turn

 

I wish it only took 15mins. I couldn't get the wrenches to fit properly and couldn't really turn them. It took me forever to get them off. A couple of hours on your back on gravel will make you hate those bolts.

If I had smaller wrenches and a helper it might only take 15 mins.

 

You might be able to pull it like that, but you won't get it installed like that. You will have to install the converter first, then the engine, or your pump will bust.

 

Just pull the TC bolts out. It's not that bad. It becomes difficult when you don't have the right tools. The trick is to remove the starter, then in the opening in the bellhousing stick a 15mm swivel socket on a 3" extention up there and take the bolts out. Very easy. Not worth the hassle to not do it. Good luck

 

Highly recommend you remove the TC bolts.

If you don't you can do the following:

Ruin your tranny front seal
Get nasty oil all over the car and floor
Have to work on the engine with the engine on the crane
Still have to rotate the crank to get to the top bolts
Save no time at all.

If you remove the bolts with engine installed:

You can get the flywheel rotating tool cheap ($20)
Borrow/rent the tool cheaper (call around)
Have the same tool for engine installation
Spend no time cleaning the fluid that spills everywhere

I was able to remove and install the TC bolts many times by using a large screwdriver and/or remote starter switch to rotate the crank to get to the three bolts. This is not a difficult job. If you try to leave the TC installed, something will surely get messed up.

 

Yeah really. No offense, but if it took hours for you to get the TC bolts off a truck? And it sounds like you've never pulled an engine in a thirdgen before? Then it's probably going to take cutting the floorpan off for you to handle the tranny-engine bolts. They are very space limited, and virtually blind.

Seriously. TC bolts rank up there with the 4 that hold a carb to the top of an intake for gravy work. All you do is put something in the flywheel to jam it tight, then go to town. Then rotate and repeat.

 

I have accidently pulled the converter with the motor on 2 occasions, i would have unbolted it but i forgot...

it made pulling the motor out a PAIN, then when i got the motor out, holding that thing still on a cherry picker while trying to unbolt the converter is a PAIN as well. keep in mind the converter has to come off before the motor will bolt to a stand, so you will have to find a way to rotate the crank and hold the motor still while you unbolt the converter, THEN you have to worry about dropping it and holding it upright so it doesnt snap a bolt when theres only 1 left.

What a PAIN. removing the 3 bolts takes almost no time if you have the right tools.

 

Ed, Guess you would had to been there. Lying on gravel sucks, and the wrench having just about no room to turn. Maybe it was the wrench I was using, I don't know. It just took me forever to get the bolts out with only being able to barely turn the wrench due to clearance, take the wrench off, reposition it, barely turn it.

It wouldn't have taken anywhere as long to remove the bolts with a ratchet, however a ratchet wouldn't catch. There wasn't enough room for the ratchet to do anything but slip.

 

Btw, Tranny bolts weren't fun on the truck either, but took me hardly any time. I have worked on a V6 Fiero where the space is alot more limited with no problems. Why does a problem with clearence and cheap tools equate to my mechanical skills?

 

Forget your mechanical skills.

if you feel it necessary that thats the ONLY way to pull the thing out like that, then go for it. by all means...

NO its not good for it, YES you can damage the transmission permanently.

Yes you will have fluid everywhere.
Yes it will be harder (much harder) to separate the engine from the tranny during pull out.

BUT IT CAN BE DONE. i did it twice by accident, like i said. and both times i nearly cried about it.

 

when i did my trans swap this summer unbolting the TC took roughly 15 mins. put in a ratchet with the proper sized socket, had one friend turn the engine by hand until i loosened all 3 bolts, then go back around again to totally remove the bolts. easy as cake. absolutely no reason not to unbolt it while you're already down there

 

last 700R4 i pulled took me 20 minutes with the help of power tools

food for thought

 

and oh yeah, you can definetly damage the pump if you pull the engine with the converter attached

 

Thanks, I will not pull the converter then. I will remove the bolts out of the converter.

 

I guess i just don't understand how you didn't have clearance if You were under the car. The fact that there was your body worth of space between the tranny and ground to me says the wrench had room to spin.

The whole 'no clearance' thing is what i don't understand. If it was some other situation, like you barely under the truck , not even jacked up, reaching over from the side and going at it blind, then i think your experience was tainted. But if it was such an obvious masochistic attempt before, i'm sure you'd realize that. But ****, why put yourself through that misery when it takes 2 minutes to jack the car up?

 

hehe when i did my trans swap it actually took me more like 45 mins to actually get the car up but thats besides the point cuz i'm an idiot like that heh