Transmission removal

[BamSHO]

Well, went to work last night and the trans in my 98 puked, lost 2nd gear, nursed it home. Has anyone done pulling the subframe/trans at home. I have a small garage. Kinda trying to figure out what to do right now, very frustated with the car, I parked in all winter.

Brian Michael
98 black Gen3

 

[My_Silver_SHO]

I dropped the subframe in my garage all by myself. Its not that bad if you have 2 floor jacks and some tall jackstands, you could use cinder blocks too. I bought a transmission jack to make the job easier, I will make you a good deal if you want to buy it.

 

[Liquid_force]

Did this in August -- unsuccessfully.
1st FWD transmission I had ever removed -- or worked on at all for that matter.
I have a one car garage w/o much room on any side.

Getting it high enough is a problem. I was told I needed 30" or so under the radiator support to roll it out the front. I think I stopped at about 27" and seemed to have plenty of room. I had 2 jack stands, ramps, a pair of bottle jacks. I also used some concrete blocks and several pieces of 2x12 lumber cut in to 12" pieces.
I also bought an engine support bar and transmission jack at harbor freight.

I worked a couple hours on Thursday evening doing the disassembly on the top side -- battery, tray, linkages etc
Another 2-3 hrs on Friday spent mainly getting it off the ground. I think I did some basic front end disassembly as well.
Sat I worked from about 8a to 1a and had a helper from ~10a-1a who had pulled the trans from his accord a few months earlier -- very good help.
The trans was out not long after lunch that day. To that point I didn't think it was too bad of a job, but that was when the head-banging against the wall started.

I had a lot of trouble getting it reassembled. There is a very specific reinstallation process that has to be followed -- nobody informed me of this when I was researching the job, and I didn't recall much in the way of reassembly instructions other than "opposite of disassembly".
I must have spent 8-10 hrs trying to shove, twist, squeeze, push, pull etc the trans into the correct position. It wasn't fun.
I fumbled around w/it all day Sunday -- I think it was that evening when I finally discovered the proper technique, and it started to fall into place. I finally got it all back together Monday afternoon.
During all the fumbling/twisting/forcing I must have dislodged the main trans seal, but din't know it until it was too late. I drove it about 50 miles on Tuesday. It got me to work, but on my way home it blew multiple qts of trans fluid all over the hwy.
At that point I had the pleasure of towing it to a shop and dropping about $1g on top of the 30 (or whatever) hours I had just spent trying to save that $1000. It was a wonderful feeling.

Now that some time has passed I think I would probably give it another try if I had to -- knowing of course, of the care that needs to be taken on reassembly.
Could have finished early on day 4 (successfully) if I had understood reassembly .

 

[Mr Anonymous]

I've done a bunch (at least 50, probably a lot more but I stopped counting) V8 tranny jobs, and I wouldn't even THINK about trying to do one without a lift. I'd sooner scrap the car and buy another one. Aside from the absurd difficulties doing it on the ground presents, the danger level is pretty high even with a proper tranny jack.

If you're ****-bent on doing it yourself, I'd at least try to find somewhere that will rent you use of their lift for a couple of days. Alternatively, if you're thinking of swapping in a junkyard tranny instead of doing a rebuild, I bet if you made a post on craigslist you could probably find a mechanic with a lift to do it for around $500.

 

[BamSHO]

Thanks, I thought one of you just did this. I need to talk to someone about using there garage/lift. The good thing I dont need the car ASAP, so I can take my time. AS for tranny jack, can borrow dad's jack he uses for his tri axle truck. Whats sucks, the body is rust free and the motor is welded, and its actually a descent car. Well thankstalk for the input, wil give me time talk with wife.

Brian Michael
98 black Gen3

 

[Primate]

I replaced the transaxle in my 97 in my driveway with a hydraulic floor jack, jack stands, and a cherry picker. Make sure to raise the car high enough to clear the subframe w/ engine & trans. lower the unit with the cherry picker slide out and separate. Found a low mile car in a U pull it and removed the transaxle in the lot of LKQ for 125.

side note just installed Accel coil packs yesterday and my car has never run better

 

[platoribs]

I've done a bunch (at least 50, probably a lot more but I stopped counting) V8 tranny jobs, and I wouldn't even THINK about trying to do one without a lift. I'd sooner scrap the car and buy another one. :laugh_ti:

I bet if you made a post on craigslist you could probably find a mechanic with a lift to do it for around $500.

If you can find a wrench to do the job correctly! for $500... do that, best money spent!

If you don't have that kind of cash laying around you should not have bought/taken an SHO!:thankyou:

 

[BamSHO]

Platoribs, I take offense to what you posted. Dont tell me not to get into SHO's if I dont have the cash in had. Ive owned many since 2000, and have done 90% of my own work. Plus Im getting little older and getting little harder to crawl around on the ground, plus I couldnt remember who here had done it at there home with jackstands and floor jacks, that's why the intial post. Primate, I'm glad the Accel coils are working for you.


Brian Michael
98 black Gen3

 

[Primate]

Thanks Brian and I have to agree