Hi,

I'm in need for help My previous thread about my dead transmission had no answers.. So after I searched for 2 weeks where to get a new trans, I finally found one. Now there's another problem.. I have to do the swap by myself, there's no one around to help me (who could know).

The car is a 88 TA... Did anyone of you change a transmission before and is able to tell me HOW I have to do this??? Can it be done by someone who has never done something alike before? I need instructions desperately

THANKS........ a lot.......
Grace

 

I changed mine out. It will be very difficult to change it by yourself though. You will have to get a transmission jack if you don't have someone to help you. Changing it out isn't that complex just a little physical. Start by getting the car on jackstands as high has you can get it. You will need a lot of room to get the transmission with the jack under the car. Drain the transmission fluid. Remove the torque arm bar from the tailshaft. Remove the torque converter bolts. You will have the remove one, turn the crankshaft, romove another bolt, continue until all bolts are removed. With the jack supporting the transmission, remove the tranny support bracket. Lower the tranny a little and remove all the cables and transmission lines. Get a line wrench for the tranny lines. It makes it a lot easier. Remove the bolts from the bell housing. You will need a couple feet of extentions. At this point the transmission should come off. I had to use a pry bar to work it loose from the motor but it will come off. Make sure that if you are replacing the torque converter that you fill it up with fluid before installing it on the transmission. Make sure you get it onto the new transmission as far as you can get it. With the old one out, put the new one on the motor. Start with the bellhousing bolts. Leave the tranny down low enough to be able to get to the tranny lines. Connect them and the cables. Put the bolts in the torque converter. Attach the torque arm bar. Put the transmission mount back on. Make sure everything is connected up an fill it with fluid. Hopefully if I missed anything someone will correct me. Let me know if you have any questions while you are doing the change.

 

I can either use a lift or a.. D@mn, its a long hole in the floor with stairs, you can walk down and drive the car above the hole. All others I asked meant, it would be easy to complete the task..

I heard about that the engine needs to be turned a few times in order to get all the bolts loose. How do I do that? At the starter? And doesn't the engine need to be turned back in the original fire position?

Do I need any special tools? I don't have that many.. Especially if I need a long extension that will become difficult.

I'm just a girl.. With a guy to help me.. I hope I can make this. Especially because it needs to be done in one day, I can't leave the car in the hall where the lift is. If there occur any problems I'm 1) clueless
2) sitting in ****
Thank you for your help so far. If there is anything you can remember, please add it here. Thanks a ton!!

Grace

 

You could use the starter to spin the engine but when you get down to the last bolt the flexplate kinda binds in the starter. So unless you have the spanner wrench to turn it over just use a small prybar or a (BF) screwdriver. I personally an too lazy to walk to the tool box for the wrench and end up using a pry bar.
Just put the 3 bolts back on the flexplate to converter only tighten them to a thread above flush so you have movement to install the other flex to converter bolts.

I dident read all of jfreeman74's info but it looked like all the instructions you would need, but I would think unhooking the TV cable is worth mentioning again.

You do need extentions but if you drop the crossmember after disconnecting the converter bolts it cuts down on the length. Either 9/16 or 14mm wobble sockets for the bell housing bolts will make the job go by much quicker.

I can do this swap at home in about 1 1/2 hours @ work probably 45 minuets tops. If this is your 1st transmission removal it will probably take half a day if you stick with it.

It suggest you use the lift to do the job unless you can get the transjack into the pit easy.

 

As I mentioned, you will need to turn the crankshaft. I did this by puting a socket and rachet on the bolt for the crack pulley but I had someone else watching for when the bolt was in the right position. Before you start turning the crankshaft, remove a couple of the sparkplugs. It will make it easier to turn. As SSC mentioned, the TV cable will need to be removed. Along with the shifter cable and TC lockup plug. As I said earlier, remove all cables that are attached. You don't need any special tools other than the long extentions which are a must. It shouldn't take more than a day. Have you checked with your local shops to see how much they would charge you to replace it?

 

I just changed my tranny this weekend and thought I would mention a couple of things. This was not mentioned, probably because it is obvious, but the driveshaft is the first thing that has to come out. Do this by removing the four bolts on the u-joint at the rear end,and then push the driveshaft forward away from the rear end, and then slide it toward the back of the car to get it out of the tranny, it is a good idea to put some tape around the u-joint caps that are now exposed at the tail of the driveshaft so they dont fall off which will cause the needle bearings to fall out.(not likely,but you dont want this to happen) If you take all of the sparkplugs out, you can turn the crank pulley by hand and put the converter bolts wherever you need them to get a wrench on them. I think you have to drop the starter before the tranny, but I am not sure because I took the starter out anyway. It does not affect the timing unless you remove or turn the distributor to keep it from hitting the firewall because the engine drops to the rear a little when the tranny is out. If you have to remove or turn the dist., mark it so you can put it back where it was when you are done. I took my dist. cap off just to be safe, and did not have to remove my distributor.
This is the U-Joint taped up.

 

Really,by taking out the spark plugs I can turn the crank pulley by hand ?What about belts.Do I need to loosen those too from the crank pulley?

 

True... But way too much work IMO just get a good length breaker bar, The exact size socket.. Not a close match (It will Strip been there done that) Eat your spinach be a man and turn that crankshaft

 

Might want to drain tranny before removing driveshaft. Fluid will come out, especially when the trans is tilted back. Fluid will also come out of the TV cable & dipstick holes.

 

eye eye captain

 

ummm,

A german girl, drives a TA, works on it herself.... My kind of girl


I have yet to see someone who can turn the crank by hand, you just put a socket on the crank nut, and turn it with a ratchet, something like a 3/4" socket.... Plugs out makes it such that you aren't compressing anything, making it MUCH easier. I wouldn't use the starter to bump over the engine, that's just me.

I hope you do have a tranny jack, these are pretty heavy...

Good luck

 

installing a tranny by yourself will be hard unless as they said, you have a tranny jack and even harder if you havent done it before. As stated, not difficult, just real physical. pay attention and take notes on what you do.

Be extremly careful that you dont crush yourself.

The tranny bell housing sits on 2 dowl (??) pins that are pressed into the block, so you should be able to remove the bellhousing bolts with out it falling.

Watch that torque arm, it can be a pain to get back in (i'm currently dealing with that).

If you want, I can email you an installation guide from bowtie overdrives if you want. PM me.

 

did anyone else notice this is a 2 year old thread.

 

Well, it took me 2 years to get my tranny in finally... heh.

 

Yes but that just means the is working.

 

WTF? geez....

 

ahhahaha...I need to find one of these tranny slugging german women for myself...wow.

 

Well, I guess here is as good a place as any to ask...

Im having to remove my 700R4 by myself. My biggest problem (litteraly) Is Im a REALLY BIG guy and have the jack stands maxed out and can barely get under the car. So far I have tanny drained, pan removed (no drain plug), Crosss member off, drive shaft removed, and as many of the connections i can get to. I think Im ready to try and remove the old transmission now... so the question is... how many bolts are there? So far I have counted 4. (2 on each side of the bell housing.) I really hope there are none at the top because that would really ruin my day. Also whats this about dowl pins? Will I have to back the tranny off to get it out?

 

bad news. there are 2 more bolts at the top of the bellhousing. i cant think of anything else that would need to go. is the torque converter unbolted so it can drop out with the trans? put a piece of wood on a floor jack, jack up on the pan (put it back on) so you have control of the tranny's height. then remove all the bellhousing bolts, and then let the jack drop and the trans will drop with it. the first thing i ever did to any car was remove the 700r4 from my camaro, and i didnt have any trouble. the only problem i see is those top two bellhousing bolts. get a 3ft extension for your ratchet and try to get them. swivel sockets are your friend too.



note the two bolts on the top.

 

ok well just to spoil your day there are 2 on top of the bell housing and the only way to get em is you just unbolt crossmember(4)bolts and drop the tranny. then use a long long long extention and a wabler head socket and go to town on it.
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sorry was typing when u posted didnt mean to say the exact same thing

 

Wow. A picture really is worth 1000 words. That tells me exactly what I needed to know. Thanks a million!

So um... I guess those top two bolts you just have to feel around for? (I dont think Im ever going to get under there far enough to see them.

And Im aware I have to remove the TC, I just havnt done it yet.

Now as far as using a jack on the pan.... I dont have a transmission jack. so Is there going to be a major ballancing act going on or how does that work?

 

i said regular floor jack. just put a piece of wood on it so you dont dent the trans pan, thats how i did it.

 

Wanna know where that picture came from? I took it. I took that one along with several others of a 2004r, flexplates and converters while working at Bowtie Overdrives and companies like raptor and monster have stolen them. Just FYI.

I had to get a friend to help me remove the tranny, you can get to the top bolts from the engine bay and a swivle. Good luck. Dont forget the converter bolts if you want to remove it with the trans, it might be easier not to. Make sure you have enough room to pull the trans back off of the dowl pins. I had the problem of the tranny tipping forward once that was done. Have someone help you.

 

Uh oh... Well once I new what to look for, I did manage to get the bolt holes in my line of sight. And when I say bolt holes, thats exactly what i mean. The yahoo that sold me this car obviously is an idiot because out of 6 bolts there were only 3 there to remove. In adition, the TV cable was only half connected. With all that said should I expect any damage to the engine?

 

nope, just trans.

 

funny story, one day i was working on the beast and this kid drives up in his camaro and asks me to help him. His setup was all jacked up. To give you a clue as to how bad, there was a rubber hose laying on the manifold and when I moved it, gas came spilling out. The only reason the car didnt catch on fire each time he drove it was because the fuel was mixing with antifreeze from the radiator which was leaking from another tube near by.

anyway, He asked me to adjust his carb because it wouldnt idle, it owuld just die. So I'm looking around like I know something and see that his TV cable is shredded. I asked WTF and he told me that some guy said that he didnt need the TV cable and he should get rid of it. So the kid cut the cable and was driving around with it off.

What some people think is right is scary to me. If you are going to put a different intake like a new carb or fuel injection, or even if your not, go get a tv made ez kit. http://www.tvmadeez.com it's worth the money because it's more of an investment. Unles sof course, you like swapping trannies.

 

Instead of using a block of wood, you can by a universal adapter that fits on a floor jack to convert it to a transmission jack. Should run you about $30.00 or so at Harbor Freight Tools unless they are sold out. They might have discontinued them. You can pick up an actuall transmission jack from them though for around $60.00 or so.