im trying to drop my transmission if any of you havnt read my other thread, but i cant get the ******* arm off.. i got one bolt removed from the rear, i thought about removing the transmission side of the torque arm.. but i dont know how to do that side.

helP?

 

You only have to pull the front (tranny) end of the torque arm in order to remove the transmission. There are two different parts involved in holding it in place there. There is a bracket that bolts to the tail of the transmission in three places. When you see this, look on the bottom of it for a slot. A tab on the second part fits into this slot. On the top of this second part, there is a bolt. Remove the bolt. But be careful!!! If the car is in a position where it is trying to roll backwards, the torque arm will be forced up. Having the back of the car up on jackstands makes sure that there isn't any major force to have to worry about. When that first bolt is out, the top of the second part I mentioned can swing out away from the transmission, like opening a book. A little bit of twisting and wiggling (of the part) will remove the tab from the slot so you can set it out of the way. After that, you just have to remove the three nuts and bolts holding the bracket to the transmission (actually, two nut/bolt combos and one nut to remove from a fixed stud). Slide the bracket away from the transmission, rotating it when needed until the stud is out of its hole, and you're done...except for that whole trasmission thing!

 

ok i think i know what your talking about. i have to take out the bolt above the torque arm where it sits in the rubber(?) enclosing, then the arm can come out that way? cool (y) ill check it out and get back to ya.


yes my car is on jackstands with bricks behind the tires

 

Yeah, the trick is to remove the bolt that you can't see on the top of the rubber sandwich assembly (15mm socket I think). Then you can wrestle the one part out of the way, leaving the torque arm free to move up and down. Then it is just unbolting the other part from the transmission (maybe you can leave that on, I can't remember. It leaves you more room with it removed though.

 

im only removing the tranny to get to the bellhouse and clutch so ill just leave it on. thanks ill go do that right now maybe.

 

I have heard if you dont do it correctly you can launch the torque arm because it is under so much... well torque.

My dad said people have been seriously injured.


Do I just put the rear end up on jackstands to prevent this?

And should I go about removing the torque arm with only the front end on jack stands?

 

That's exactly right about the injury.

You can remove the torque on it, or at least reduce it to the point that you can deal with it, if you jack the rear of the car up and put the frame on stands, right at the front of the lower control arms, letting the rear end just hang free. Then put your jack under the pumpkin and raise it an inch or 2, just enough to get it up off of the stop in the shocks. Then put another set of stands under the axle tubes, and let the jack down so the rear sits on them. Note that I said the axle tubes: not the pumpkin, not any brackets, not any other part, under the axle tubes only. The reason the torque arm has torque on it is because the springs aren't on the center of the axle tubes, rather they push on their little perches that are off to the side; so as long as there's compression in the springs, they're going to be trying like hell to make the rear rotate, which means there will be force on the torque arm.

You don't have to take it all the way out to get the trans out. Just take the brackets for it off of the trans after you support it as described, and leave it alone at the rear.

Not having enough stands is no excuse. They're $15 a set. Is your life, or your fingers, or whatever, worth $15 to you? then go get a set of stands if you don't have enough. No excuses.

 

Would it be a problem for you to draw a little schematic of what you just described?

 

Personally what I did was grabbed a old nasty towel and wrapped it around the tourque arm so I can get a nice grip and just unscrewed that semi-hidden bolt and held onto it with the towel while wiggling it out of the mount worked for me, but thats just me I guess, also, I had my vehicle on all four jack stands.....*shrug*.