legacycentral bbs

Or at least I'm starting the work. I had to come in and warm the bones quick though and thought I'd post up.

I have the car up, TBE removed, TMIC removed, shifter undone in the interior, front axles removed (undone from tranny) and I just drained the gear oil.......stanky.

I could actually see small metal fragments coming out in the gear oil as it drained. All the pieces were very small and seemed to go into my oil drain can. I'm going to try and get a picture if there's any on the oil can that can be seen.

Working on cars is sure a lot more fun when you have some of your buddies around to help and talk to. I'm cold and bored out there all by my lonesome. Anyone in the area feel free to swing by and keep me company!

I'm out!

Awesome! I'm sending a virtual hand your way to turn a wrench or two.

You'll want someone to help with sliding the new tranny up to the motor. It was a bitch for me, I had to try it about a dozen times.

I had my car up on stands, and I used a rachet strap to hold the tranny to the floor jack to get it out.

Its amazing the World Rally Team can change their transmission in 11 minutes

Thanks.

I had forgotten that the drain plug on the tranny was magnetic, holy hell, a crap load of metal was on it!

I just dropped the drive shaft, took out the starter and undid the clutch actuator.

1st hiccup. I went to unscrew the speedometer cable and the stupid little plastic nut thing that holds it in just totally broke! I can't get the speedometer cable out. Any suggestions?

yeah sorry Matt, I just got back from New York now

uh did you get that speedo cable out?

Not yet. I had moved on to other things and then it got too cold. I'm going to work on it more Sunday.

Did your new tranny not have the part?

There is a metal little clip on the speedo cable that you un-do to remove the speedo cable from the transmission. Did you pull that little clip?

The full speedo cable is 2 parts from cluster to transmission.

The new tranny doesn't have anything speedometer wise.

I was able to get it out. I got the threaded part of the plastic clip out with needle nose pliers. It only took me about 5 minutes. I can probably get it back in and avoid replacing the speedometer cable again too.

I didn't undo the metal clip, I just tried to unscrew it where it threads into the tranny.

Hmmm....Sunday.....I got the blown tranny out of the car. Got the shifter linkage all tore apart (hardest part was getting the piece with the pin off the shaft that goes into the tranny). A lot of PB, a large punch and a hammer finally got it off. Here's the thing though. Everyone is always talking about how hard it is to press new shifter bushings in and I did it by hand with NO problem at all! I replaced them in like 5 minutes, all of them. My old bushings were beyond shot, they were actually falling apart. The new bushings made a world of difference as far as I could tell. Everything's very tight.

Went to put the tranny back in and....no go. The guy that was helping wasn't very strong and I was trying to muscle it in pretty much free hand all by myself and I couldn't even get it close. It felt like I was getting hung up on something but I couldn't tell what. I had the bell housing/front diff area and my buddy had the center diff/shifter area. He was behind me and everytime I said to lift the back and help me push it forward, he would push it crooked and twist it. After pulling most of the muscles in my neck, shoulders back and arms I called it quits. It was getting dark, very cold and my frustration/anger level was getting into the red. I truely believe that if I would have had someone like Phil or Vikash helping, we could have had it in lickity split.

OK, it's about 20 minutes since I started posting and I just got off the phone with Phil and he's going to come up on Thursday and help me get this banged out!

Phil's the mother fuckin' MAN!!!!!!

Would it be easier to have pulled the engine and reinstal it after getting the transmission in?

Steve

I don't think so, no. One, I don't have an engine hoist, I had borrowed one from a buddy when I did my engine swap.

Everything really has gone very smooth with this tranny swap except trying to get the new one in. I think a lot of that had to do with being tired and my friend not really understanding what I was wanting him to do. He's not a car guy at all and had zero experience working on cars. I'm very confident that Phil and I will have it back together very quickly.

I could have thrown a hand in to help. I'm pretty sure the knowledge would be helpful to me too...

You were still in Cleveland. This was this past Sunday. =)

D'oh! My bad.

So you got it in? I thought you were saying Phil was coming up this Thursday to help. Either way, I could still be of help if it's not done. I'll keep an ear and eye open.

Are you documenting the install?

Not really documenting, no. I could do a right up and include pics but I don't know when I'd have the time to do it.

Scott- No, I still don't have it in. Phil is coming up to help me Thursday so we'll be here doing it in the morning. Stop by and check it out. At this point it it should be stuff that would definitely be good to know for your own swap too.

anything i should be aware of that came up unexpectedly?



i start mine on thursday

Not really, just be careful with the speedometer cable.

Wow, I'm glad it's on its way in even if it's not done just yet. Phil is indeed the man!