Clutch bolts and locktite

Which is best for dropping the transmission?

Do you remove the crossmember, the bracket, or just the transmission mount?

  • Crossmember
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  • Bracket
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  • Mount
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Also, do you locktite the bolts when you re-install? (What color?)

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Reply to
Arlen Holder
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If you have to ask those questions, the job is above your pay grade...

Reply to
Wade Garrett

Might also help to specify the make, model, year. When you know that, there are plenty of resources from Bentley and similar manuals that are typically available for purchase or at the library, to Youtube vidoes showing it being done. I'd bet "removing XXXX model YYYY transmission" would produce a lot of hits from people who have the vehicle and have done it.

Reply to
trader_4

Wade Garrett posted for all of us...

I believe this guy is the valve stem thread, harbor freight bead breaker, tire spec, brake lining spec Ultrec nym shifter. If he would just post under one name then I and more people would help him. Since I posted this the insults and diversions will now start.

Reply to
Tekkie®

Yeah, he was offended by what I said and took a shot at me in another newsgroup over it. I was really just trying to help the guy out.

Asking those rookie questions before starting the major repair he was contemplating, I had visions of him mangling his hand, crushing his fingers, or a heavy overhead assembly slipping as he tried to remove it and dropping down onto him cracking his skull or crushing his chest.

When he sees this post- he'll probably go apoplectic!

Reply to
Wade Garrett

I didn't see any interest in my suggestion, which was one of the first, which was that there are repair manuals out there Haynes, Bentley, etc, probably available at the local library and even better, Youtube videos of guys doing the actual repair. The manuals generally have the steps, what needs to be removed, the order, whether the bolts need locktite or not, etc. The videos show guys doing it, shortcuts, possibly easier ways of doing it, what to watch out for, what tools to use, etc. Those manuals and videos have saved me countless hours on things like how to pull a door panel or how to change a chain in a transfer case on a particular vehicle. Seems a better idea than asking people here without even stating what vehicle it is, but to each his own.

Reply to
trader_4

SOLVED!

It's done. I am gonna take it for a smoke test.

The new tools I'm glad I obtained were the transmission jack (thank God), and the alignment tool that came with the clutch kit, and the assortment of extension bars, and the two M12x1.25 3-inch threaded dowels.

In the end, I removed more than is necessary, but I'm glad I did remove the front wheels (particularly the driver side), the front sway bar, the entire harness (every bolt and every sensor), and the cross member.

The bitch was the starter motor, both getting out and even worse getting back in, which is the only job that really required two people. I did everything else alone. The second hardest task was lining up the transmission to go in because you're staring at a hunk of aluminum not knowing why it won't move forward.

The top two 17mm bell housing bolts were not easy, but not all that difficult with 30 inches of extensions and swivels.

Pouring the new Redline MT-90 into the conning tower turns out to be the

*easiest* way to refill a transmission, bar none.

Having four 15-inch jack stands was instrumental, as I needed at least 23 inches of clearance from the frame to get the transmission in and out.

The actual transmission work was easy, including the diaphragm, the pilot bearing, the throwout bearing, and the fork, but I would have liked thicker grease on the fork (but I only had Mobil 1 bearing grease).

I wrote up a detailed DIY so that others could benefit from all the work, and I took hundreds of pictures. I don't know if I'll ever associate the pictures with each task, but I'll try to help others.

Thanks for all your advice and help. If there is a bedding procedure, now is the time to let me know! Pictures later.

I very much appreciate you help, because it's my first clutch job ever and I have nobody around me who knows anything about cars - so your advice was instrumental!

Reply to
Arlen Holder

Break it in just like you would do with new brake shoes or pads. Easy for a while before you lean hard on it.

Reply to
Hank Rogers

Thanks for that advice. I took it on a flat road and up a hill but not yet on the highway as it's kind of far so I'll let the driver do that.

I did stall it a couple of times when I was doing a first and reverse K turn, which is strange but that's because it used to grab almost at the top of the clutch pedal return, and even then, it had grabbed smoothly (since it was super worn).

Now it grabs much earlier and very firmly on the pedal uplift. Much earlier than it did before. But that old clutch had something like 90K miles on it, and about 10 years of driving, so a difference in feel is to be expected.

It's a self-adjusting (so to speak, but really that just means it's hydraulic) so there's nothing to adjust but pedal play to the master cylinder.

I'll deal with that adjustment later, as I've done it before and it's really not a hard science it seems, as there's nothing but a bit of free play to measure (you can't really measure it ... you just feel for it).

BTW, it's a stock 1:1 replacement for the 900 foot pound original clutch, where the Marlin Crawler outfit sells a 1200 pound clutch that they 'say' is better but I can't imagine what more foot pounds will do for a clutch since the engine only develops something like 250 foot pounds (which may not be the same type since one is angular and the other maybe not).

Anyway, everything is working - where I appreciate the help because it was my first clutch, which took more than twice as long as I had thought it would take and where, with your help, I did everything alone except for the starter motor replacement - where a friend helped me.

It feels good to finally know what a pilot bearing is, and where it goes, and how it goes in, and how it comes out. Likewise with the throwout bearing.

I did test Clare's suggestion on the old clutch plate and diaphragm where I can see now that gravity will pull it down off center which will then be bolted off center if I don't use the alignment tool. With the alignment tool, there was no alignment problem (other than having to jiggle the bejesus out of the transmission to get the splines to line up).

Another thing Clare and others suggested was to spin the transmission through the driveshaft, which turned out to be very easy when I tried it.

Overall, I'm glad I did it, as there are some jobs that are too big to do at home, where lots of people consider this one of them. I feel like I graduated, a bit, into an elite group, who has done a clutch at least once.

Reply to
Arlen Holder

I've done it without a jack when I was young and poor. Then I found you could rent them from most rental places. I saw the light right after I pulled the cast iron 4 speed primitive automatic from a '49 Chrysler. I got it our without crushing any vital body parts but I knew it wasn't going back in that way.

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Yeah, I know that's for a John Deere but it was the first link with a photo I came to. Trust me, that's not even the weirdest starter motor wrench I've seen. I'm sure when they're bolting the assembly together on the production line it's a piece of cake but then they grease it up and shove it into the body.

Reply to
rbowman

Reading between the lines he is not the principal driver. Maybe take it for a long, gentle road trip before handing it over...

Or there is the other school of break-in -- drive it like you stole it.

Reply to
rbowman

I have heard of that, and, truth be told, this transmission was light enough for me to move around in my hands, but, I'd *never* do the job without that transmission jack. Too much chance of getting tired and getting hurt if it doesn't go in or out on schedule.

I admire anyone who has removed a transmission without a jack!

Cast iron. OMG. This one is aluminum, thank God. And 2WD. And I had taken all the fluid out. So it was a light as it was going to get, and still, I wouldn't do that job without a transmission jack.

I don't like the jack I got, but it did the job. It could adjust side to side and up and down, but not much on the down because the handle hit the bottom of the transmission (poor design). I had to bolt on a piece of 3/4 inch scrap to raise the transmission away from the knob.

Something like that wrench might have worked. I tried every 14mm tool in my repertoire, and finally I got it. There's no way I was gonna get a torque wrench on it though, so, at 30 pounds, I just guessed.

The problem was that the two bolts were blocked by almost everything no matte rwhat direction you came at them.

If you tried from above, you could barely put a fingertip on the upper bolt. If you tried from the wheel well, you could get only one hand. And if you tried from below, you couldn't see what you're doing.

It was horrid. But that part is over thank God.

Really - the hardest part, in hindsight, other than not knowing what to do, was that starter motor. I'm glad it's over with. (It's my first starter motor too.)

If I do it again, I'd pick up all the shapes of 14mm wrenches that God has designed, hoping that one of them would be the perfect shape!

Reply to
Arlen Holder

The 3 and 4 speed transmissions with aluminum housings don't weigh that much. Particularly when you're twenty.

The Chrysler otoh was a piece of work. It was very early in the development of automatics so it had both a clutch and a fluid coupling.

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The moment of truth was when I took the whole weight and realized I might be going for a personal best bench press.

The rest of the car followed suit. It was a straight 8, cast iron block of course. No power steering. It was pleasant on the highway but my wife used words I didn't think she knew trying to parallel park the beast.

They don't make cars like that anymore. Thank the Gods. At about 4500 pounds 0 to 60 took a while. My '62 Continental weighed in over 5000 pounds but it had a modern 430 ci V-8 and was a supercar compared to a flat head straight 8 that was designed in the early '30s.

Reply to
rbowman

Not an automatic at all - the infamous "fluid drive" or "Hy-Drive" transmissin.

Put it in high, floor it, and 0 to 30 in about 65 seconds - - - Shift it like a "normal" standard and it was significantly quicker, but still slow compared to a standard.

You want to do it with a cast iron powergglide in a '60 Biscayne - - DON'T try it with a Dynaglyde!!!!! - -

Thne heaviest flathead 8 Chrysler ( not Imperial or Town and Country) was the 47 Saratoga 4 door - at a sprightly3972 lbs with the TC New Yorker coming in at 4344.

The '49 Crown Imperial limo tipped the scakes at almost 5300.

4927 for the sedan, 5215 for the ragtop
Reply to
Clare Snyder

I'm super glad my first transmission is aluminum, where it needed onlytwo feet of height to clear the frame rails:

Where it was a Godsend to have this clutch disk alignment tool:

For some reason, the fork kept knocking the throwout bearing off the spindle so I had to tie it down with tire tube ties: The best thing I did was machine those two 3-inch long dowel pins!

But I wish I had done the rear transmission seal like you suggested:

And the rear engine oil seal (but Toyota didn't have it in stock):

Next time I'll do them! :)

Reply to
Arlen Holder

She drove it today on the highway and said it didn't vibrate, which is good because I had mounted and balanced her tires and replaced her rear drums where I made a rookie mistake by not putting the drum linkages back right.

This time, I rotated the tires again (she eats them up where I wish there was a way to cash in on the warranty since the car is aligned professionally and the tires are rotated five times a year in the X and then H pattern repeatedly (X then H then X then H, etc.).

I wonder if there is a way to "prove" you rotated tires when you do them at home? I never cashed in on a tire warranty in my life so I don't know how it works (do you ship them back the four tires, for example?).

I learned a lot I hadn't expected to learn, by the way, such as this is what the reverse sensor looks like apparently:

And this is apparently the speedometer sensor:

And that the clutch disc is asymmetric so it has to go in only this way:

Filling the transmission with the Red Line MT-90 was a breeze from the top:

But I wonder what this strange-looking "K" means on the conning tower?

Reply to
Arlen Holder

You should record all this long saga to a dvd, and give it to your great grandchildren.

They will sit around campfires in 2060 and show the videos while roasting marshmallows.

Maybe in 2160, they will still recollect old gram pa's heroic efforts in the olden days.

Maybe a statue in the town square.

Reply to
Hank Rogers

What I really love to do, for posterity, is write tutorials. I just posted the nascent tutorial to one of your other posts. Take a look at it, and note two things: a. I don't skip a single step (not a single bolt) b. I have pictures of everything

What I'd *love* to do is rip apart an old car and write the "hanes" manual where I'd do so much better than does Chilton or the FSM that it wouldn't be funny.

Of course, my method works for a "specific" car, so that would be my angle. A specific model, year, and engine and transmission.

Do you think there would be a market for such a car-specific (completely unlike Hanes/Chilton/FSM) perfect no-step-missed DIY as I write?

Reply to
Arlen Holder

Nah, no market for it. The manufacturer has shop manuals for sale. I've had them for my last 4 cars. They can be costly, but I've managed to buy used ones on Ebay. I think the most expensive was about 45 bucks, but my cars were 10 years old when I bought them. But they can lead you down the wrong road. For instance, the procedure to replace the motor mounts on my '97 Lumina looked way too complicated and costly. I found a simple procedure on Youtube, and did it that way.

Reply to
Vic Smith

Yeah but Chrysler was hoping nobody would notice. Not that the Powerslide was any prize either. I don't even want to think obout some of the new trannies with more speeds than an English bicycle.

Reply to
rbowman

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