How hard to drop the tranny without pulling the engine?

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88crxsi

Guest
I just got a bunch of parts off this guys parts car. Well after playing with his tranny its in alot better shape then mine. He said he will help me swap it for 100 bucks. He has never did a tranny on a supra. He said that he has did one swap. I havnt did swaps, but Im learning to do alot of stuff. I think between the two of us we should be able to figure it out. I have a haynes manual. Im mainly looking to see if there is any info I should need to know? How long would be a good estimate it would take to drop the tranny from the car without pulling the motor? Here's my idea of how to go about doing this. Please tell me if there is a better way. My next door neighbor changed his tranny on his little ranger by using a jack and putting a board on top of it. He used the board to set the tranny on and drop it out of the car then did the same to jack the new tranny up in the car. Is there a better method then this? Would jacking the supra up do the trick? I was thinking I might need the ramps you drive up onto. However not sure my car would do that. I have kyb gr2 struts with suspension technique springs. So it sits low. Please give me any insight so we can plan around our busy work schedules. Thanks in advance. Excuse my crappy spelling and grammar. I spent all day swapping the springs, struts, and bunch of other stuff from his parts car onto mine.
 

tomjan87

New Member
Apr 18, 2005
121
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Madison, WI
ok here you go,
I did mine last year to change the clutch. its kinda a pain, my first also, but its not impossible. the haynes manual helps. first, the bolts suck that are on the bell housing. The ones on top are the hardest. You can get a wrench in there from laying on top of the drivers side of the engine for the hardest one. 87-88 you dont have to pull the starter, 89+ I believe you do. next hardest thing, You will have 2 small covers on each side of the tranny. take them off after you get the bellhousing out. or before, not sure if it matters, the thing is that you have to unbolt the pressure plate(i think thats what its called) from the flywheel while th etranny is still on the car, and bolt it back on after the tranny is back on, its a pain! but not that bad. next is just getting all the bolts out and letting it sit on a jack. Get the car up as high as you can, get blocks and everything. mine is lowered also, we had it about 3 feet up. and you need it. ok once the tranny is on the jack(get an actual tranny hoist if you can, helps a lot), you can start to slide it backward to get the shaft out of the engine. have someone on the front of the engine with a 2x4 or pry bar gently tipping the engine so the tranny slides out easier. you can get it off without this , but good luck getting it back on. after that, its all gravy. getting the splines to match back up on the way in is all luck i guess, but they will slide in, just have to hit it right.

Goodluck. I thnk i got all the problems there for ya that I had, Oh yah, dont forget to plug in the back up lights, its hard to get it when tranny is in.

Joe
 
8

88crxsi

Guest
I was looking at the trsm webpage and it looks like thats how the take the tranny out by using a jack. If anyone that has done this has any input please feel free.
 

macsupra76

New Member
May 17, 2005
128
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Calgary AB
I have removed the tranny using 2 jacks, cause its heavy. Plus i used one jack in the front of the engine, to lift the engine at a tilt , to get to tranny bolts by the fire wall, what a pain.
 

GrimJack

Administrator
Dec 31, 1969
12,377
3
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Richmond, BC, Canada
idriders.com
Takes two people about 6 hours to pull and replace the tranny. It's not very technical - some of the bolts are hard to get at, but it's pretty obvious what needs to be done. For the hard bolts, you'd better have scrawny arms - and even then, you better grease them up goos before you try to slide them into place to get the bellhousing bolts undone.
 
8

88crxsi

Guest
I didnt think it would be to hard, just checking to see about how long it would take us to do. We both have two different work schedules and dont want to have to leave my car there.
 
I

itr206

Guest
the top bolts are a bitch and the starter bolts suck too.
Not impossible to do. But not easy eiather
 
8

88crxsi

Guest
I figure its going to suck, but I need the tranny so we will "GET R DONE". My car is a 87 with 92 motor, but they didnt swap the tranny out that has 150,000 on it. It could be fixed but his car only has like 100,000 on it and for 100 bucks I will figure out how to get it in. If all else fails I will have one big paper weight.
 

Justin

Speakers?
Mar 31, 2005
1,699
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Spokane, Wa
from the sounds of it, pulling the engine would be easier! It took me under 2 hours to get the engine completely out of the car working by myself, seems like that would be alot easier
 

PhiDelt109

MkIII Hobbyist
Jun 2, 2005
36
0
0
Kansas City, MO
I did mine 2 months ago and it really wasn't as bad as some people make it out to be.
Air is your friend on this one. If you have air tools and long/lots of extentions + knuckle the top bolts on the bellhousing are easy, just slide the extentions between the firewall and tranny. Getting them from that top looked impossible to me. Your transmission is an 87 so the starter will be the worst part by far, non-treading bolts w/ nuts on the other side. I get pissed off just thinking about those. :icon_evil
 
Apr 1, 2005
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WA
i dropped the tranny by myself. it was a PITA mostly because i have big hands. i bought 2 super long extentions but only used one of em, plus a 6inch.
i made a tray for my jack out of wood. the tranny sits nice and safe on that when i raise and lower it without risk of it slipping off. not too tough to do. just takes time if youve never done it before.