i welded up a plate that replaces the saddle on one of my hydraulic jacks. lower it and trans down, slide trans off plate onto ground and slide trans out. when ready, slide trans under, rock trans up onto plate on the jack, & raise it up. sometimes getting trans up onto plate can be tricky.
Dave has some great advice. To make your life a little easier, beg borrow or steal a tranny jack. If yuo can't do that fab up a plate like Dave S. suggested. Other than the good advice that you've got already, once you get the tranny down a little ways, you can use one of your bell housing bolts to bolt a wrench on to the bell to holt the torque in place. If you are trying to slide it out the side, you can get just a bit more room by sliding the bell out the wheel well. My worth.
OLD GUY-Dave H; thanks for the detailed advice. Looks like I'll be going this route. You mentioned supporting the engine near the oil pan area, is that due to weight transfer/teetering? Mitch
Putting a block under the oil pan is done sometimes to keep the engine in the correct angle for reinstallation and take the weight off the motor mounts. If they are worn out or broken, this could cause a problem too. I also made a cradle for the jack but if the car is not up high enough, is hard to get the tranny off the thing to slide out sideway's. Just easier for me to use the jack itself, cradle is safer if clearance is not an issue. Same goes for store bought tranny jacks, with limited heigth, they are a pain. ended up giving mine away. But they do work in larger shop enviroments. That wrench across the bell to hold the converter in works great, as does any flat piece of strong metal etc.
This has been an extremely useful thread. I'm a week or two away from attempting my first rebuild project on my C4, I think either the clutches or bands are shot... it'll just barely try anything in reverse, and won't go forward at all. Having never done a tranny before, I'm interested to know if there's any tips or tricks besides keeping all the parts in order? I figure since I have the time, a $60 rebuild kit and a $20 book are at least worth a shot before I spend $200 on another tranny plus paying someone to put it in, or the $600 and up that everyone says they'll charge to rebuild. Or at least I hope so
I've seen C4s rebuilt a hundred times and the best tip I can give you is this... Get a nice clean work area and a table/bench big enough for all your tools and parts. The bigger the better. As you take the trans apart, dont just sit stuff wherever... line it up in the order that i came out in. I've seen Old guy rebuild these trans many times and trust everything he says on this issue. As far as you wondering about bands or clutches, Id say 99% of the time the band is in good shape, it's the clutches that are junk always.
yup they are pretty easy , i torn into one this afternoon , old one i had at the house...just to learn . and well its very simple, everything is straight forward, pay attetion how it comes out , and putting it back together will be just as easy
I'm in the process of removing my trans (auto). Found someone locally who rebuilds them with a 5 year guarantee for $275.00. Today was loosening/draining everything. Friday will be the removal.
Just another thought, five year guarantee is very rare on rebuilds, especially for 275.00. The cornhusker state is pretty good about that sort of thing though. He will probably insist on putting in a new torque converter for the warranty. Is very good idea since the old one may be full of trash from the original trans, and would eventually get into the new one and cause premature wear and failure. May I suggest putting on a good cooler too, and do periodic fluid and filter changes during the five years also.
Exactly... and may require you come in for service on it every XX amount of miles and have him do all the work to keep that warranty. I also suggest a good cooler
Dont forget to flush the old cooler while you have the trans out. I flush everything...cooler, lines, and all...stock type setups just use a cooler that is built into the radiator. Flush that out too. You want to get as much of the old fluid out as possible. The old junk usually has clutch material, metal, etc in it and putting in a new or rebuilt trans without flushing everything out is like taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back. As a side note I had a converter fail in my Maverick last week. I wasn't aware that there was that much metal inside the converter. Pan was FULL (to the top) of metal shavings both aluminum and steel. The stator thrust bearing failed, let the stator concact the pump vanes, and destroyed the aluminum stator, sprag, bearings and bent a few vanes. It was fixable...for a small fee....but just like me, I had the luck thing going (converter was flash stalling 6200 RPM and NO rpm drop at the shift)...and kept running right through the final round where I runnered up. Probably could have won, but I won't go into details...let's blame the converter. Pretty much took out the transmission too. Got the pump, planetary set, high clutch bushing, rear bushing and the low band. If I had stopped running the thing in the 2nd round when I noticed the problem I would have been able to salvage the trans and just fix the converter. Us racers will drive broken cars if there is money winning involved
