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A more thorough explanation I wrote down for another member.wytbishop wrote:I changed the tranny 3 times in 2 days once without removing the engine. Way, way easier to leave the engine in.
Raise the car, chock the wheels and support it on jack stands...make sure it's really stable cuz you're going to have to wrestle with it a bit and get it nice and high so you can get in and out from underneath easily,
remove the front wheels,
drain the tranny,
unbolt the ball joints from the LCA's,
disconnect the outer tie rod ends (optional...if you do disconnect them be careful not to change their lengths or you'll need an alignment),
remove the intake,
disconnect the reverse switch,
disconnect the neutral switch,
disconnect and remove the starter,
remove the distributor and set it on the front valve cover...just for more space,
if you still have a battery in the engine compartment (loser, everyone puts the battery in the trunk for ballast) remove it and the tray,
disconnect the speedo sensor,
unbolt the clutch slave cylinder and unclip the hard line from the top of the tranny, put it aside without disconnecting it,
unbolt the fuel filter bracket (the worst part of the job by far),
put a jack under the engine with a wood block and put just a little upward pressure on the oil pan,
unbolt the front and rear tranny mounts from the transmission mount member,
remove the crossmember and tranmission mount member if you are taking the tranny out the bottom (recommended),
remove the clutch dust cover from the back side of the tranny,
disconnect the shift linkage,
unbolt the half shaft from the engine block,
have someone pull the passenger side wheel hub away from the car to disengage the drive shaft from the half shaft and remove the half shaft,
have that person now pull the driver side wheel hub away from the car while prying between the CV joint and the transmission to disengage the drver side drive shaft (if you pull it far enough away you can actually get the CV joint through the frame and prop it out of the way,
completely remove the driver side tranny mount (unbolt it from both the tranny and the frame rail...you'll want the room),
remove all the bolts connecting the belhousing to the engine block (there are 7...or is it 8?),
lower the jack supporting the engine just a little so that the tranny can pass under the frame rail,
wiggle, pry shake hammer and otherwise massage the transmission off of the 2 locating dowel pins which are inevitably corroded solidly in their holes and slide the input shaft out of the clutch.
It's out.
The only difficult part of reinstallation is aligning the splines on the input shaft with the clutch. Have someone strong...your brawniest buddy get under the car and you get at it from above and lift the tranny into place together. Once it's sort of in place you'll have to turn the whole tranny side to side to find the place where the splines mesh...it can be tricky. Don't try to do it by yourself...it's a little too heavy unless you are extremely strong. I've had to do it and I am very strong and it sucked.