well i heard when you are doing a auto to 5 spd the. the bar that goes from the rearend to the middle of the car. damnit i cant think of the name. well i guess it springs up and can hurt or the floorboard. what can i do to provent this or not to hurt myself

 

To prevent the torque arm from flying up and hitting the floor pan, you can simply unbolt the 2 bolts holding it to the rear axle...Then you can remove the transmission mount for the torque arm, as you will need a new one specificly for a manual transmission....Hope that helps, Also this would be a prime time to install a spohn adjustable one depending on how deep your pockets are

 

Or you can use a long enough extension, bar, or wood to prevent the panhard bar from going up once you remove it from the tranny.

 

Not trying to step on anyones toes, but you mean the torque arm right? Panhard bar is the bar that goes with the rear axle and connects to the unibody above. ( Which you shouldn't have to remove. )

 

i cant get the damn arm out of there. any ideas?

 

nm im just going to pull out the whole arm

 

Then put one back in right? If you don't, you're fooked.

 

Just make sure you lower the rear all the way down, disconnect the shocks + panhard, and remove the springs (keep an eye on the brake line, it only has so much play in it) before you remove teh torque arm. I took mine off w/o removing the springs and had no problems, but the torque from the springs turned the rear around a bit and I doubt I would have been able to easily get the torque arm on again. I did it a second time when I took my auto out and itll be interesting to see if I can be lazy and just get the arm back on.

Its also possible to remove the outer plate of the mount if you remove one bolt out that anchors the mount to the tail shaft and take out another bolt that holds the halves of the mount together but its probably easier to just remove the torque arm and get it out of the way.

 

You're kidding right? You took off the shocks and everything to get the torque arm off? What kind are you running.

 

My mistake, I meant the torque arm and not the panhard bar. Thanki you for bringing that out.

 

When your suspention is old and has lots of old, rotten bushings like mine does the springs have to come out. Without the torque arm, theres nothing there to provide a reaction torque to that applied by the partially loaded springs but those old sloppy rubber bushings. The rear has rotated to such an extreme angle that Id never be able to get the torque arm back on again since the floor pan will be in the way. Hence, the springs have to come out, or be compressed. Might not be like that for everyone, but its like that for me. It doesnt take too long to do so, so Im not that bothered by it.

 

when i took out my 700 and put in my t5 i used my auto mount and crossmember.

 

Uh, I'm not sure what was said above, but removing the torque arm is pretty easy. Assuming you have the car in the air sitting on 4 jack stands at 4 corners under the frame - do the following:

- Take the nuts off at the rear, and leave the bolts in.

- Use a hyd. jack under the rear axle housing (under the cover)and raise the rear end up enough so the bolts will slide out.

- slide the TA off the rear, and pull back so it slides out of the front mount on the tranny. You may have to loosen the 3 bolts on the trans mount part of it.

I've only done mine like, 15 times.

AFAIK, the front mount is the same between auto and T-5....

Good luck!!

 

Man, I had no luck just sliding it off. After I lowered the rear enough to remove the bolts that ancored it to the torque arm the housing it was really hard to get off and I had to beat it with a mallot. Once the torque arm was off the rear immediatly spun around without it and I thought for sure the springs where going to pop out by how little contact there was with the spring seats.

Had to completly unload teh rear end in order to get it and the torque arm in the same plane to bolt them back together.

I guess I must be the worst case senario.

 

Thats what I was trying to say earlier. I have had mine off probably 5-6 times, and it only took me like 10 minutes to put it on, and part of that was looking for the air line, impact, and socket.