How in the !@#$ do you put the gearbox back on?

Bill Strong

New member
woohoo!
Tilted the engine up, dropped the tranny on it. still could not get it. I was cussing, swearing, and swearing and cussing, nothing. I got so pissed I hit the F&%$ing tranny with my hand, it wobbled twice, and dropped right into place.

unreal

Thanks guys
 

3sgtenavyman

New member
wow it took me 20 min with my spec clutch, I (will me and two others) put the trans on a metal top table, then I took a deep well socket and aliened the disk and torque the pressure plate and hung the motor on the picker and pointed it at the trans and had my wife crank the motor around as my self and one other pulled the two together to the point where I could get a bolt in and cinched it all down

oh and it would have damn worth it for the 500 bucks, i would have driven to NY
 

donteatbugs

New member
ive gotten them mated by myself with the missle silo method in 45 minutes. the last time i did it i had 2 other people so it took 10 mins because we just picked the trans up instead of using a hoist. (the trans is not light btw)
 

cozmic512

New member
I'm almost afraid to post this, but we had them together in like 15 mins.
I think we just got REALLY lucky, but here's how we did it.
It was just my brother and I. he gets roped into everything...
We hung the motor on the hoist with a load leveler.
The tranny was on a dolly and we adjusted the angles on both
until they looked close. You can see the input shaft through the starter hole
and once it was inside the pressure plate, my brother pushed the tranny and I held the motor and it just slid right in.
I think if you use a scotch brite pad to clean up the input shaft and just use a little grease on it it should go in right. Of course you have to get it past the transfer case and pass side output shaft.
Oh and dont forget to make sure the clutch disk fits on the input shaft.
I learned that the hard way on my old 02.
 

Sifu

New member
If you have extra hands it really helps for this. Alas I work solo most of the time since everyone that helps me the first time gives up the second time... :p
 

cgtdream

New member
A few things that have helped me alot. Firstly i make sure the clutch is centered right. Dont know how many hours ive wasted trying to put the thing on, when all i had to do is re-adjust the clutch and the thing would slide on in less than 10mins. Next, to actually slide it on, i would use a motorcylce jack or two car jacks to support the tranny, and an engine hoist (cherry picker) to support the engine and manuever it into the tranny...then...i would just bear-hug the shit out of the combo and somehow it slides right on.....

Although two other friends helping out seems to work out just as well...
 

built2run

New member
figure i should give a little imput, you have to twist AND angle the trans till the transfer case area goes over the bolt hole "corner" on the block then carefully straighten it and wiggle it on. the clutch does have to be perfectly aligned and the method mentioned b4 me works perfect with what i just said
 

BNZ

New member
Can you remove the gearbox with the engine in place (on the car) ?
Isn't easier to take the transfer/transaxle off the gearbox first ?
 

Sifu

New member
BNZ":1pb35fp5 said:
Can you remove the gearbox with the engine in place (on the car) ?
Isn't easier to take the transfer/transaxle off the gearbox first ?
Yes and IMO no. It is cramped unless you have a lift and room underneath. The transfer case is pretty heavy and a PITA to get it out or off with the entire engine/trans/tx case intact. It can be done but I still think it's way easier to just take out the entire unit.
 

phattyduck

New member
Sifu":267i2wos said:
BNZ":267i2wos said:
Can you remove the gearbox with the engine in place (on the car) ?
Isn't easier to take the transfer/transaxle off the gearbox first ?
Yes and IMO no. It is cramped unless you have a lift and room underneath. The transfer case is pretty heavy and a PITA to get it out or off with the entire engine/trans/tx case intact. It can be done but I still think it's way easier to just take out the entire unit.
I don't think it can be done, even on a lift, etc. The angle the transfer case needs to go to interferes with the steering rack and body of the car, and I don't think the motor can be tilted sufficiently out of the way.

I was able to put the engine and trans together by myself in an hour or two... set the bell housing of trans up on a couple 2x6's, put a small jack under the transfer case to adjust angles and have the engine on a hoist. It does take a lot of maneuvering to get it all together - the transmission and engine have to be right next to each other before they can be rotated to the correct position for the dowel pins.

As for taking the transfer case off the motor, that might be possible - though I think some of the bolts are quite hard to get to with the engine in place.

-Charlie
 

Sifu

New member
You can remove the gear box with engine still in the car (trust me and don't ask me how I know). It is cramped and much more headache than dropping the whole unit. When you do get off the tranny HOO BOY wait until you try to mate them with the engine in the car... Again, don't ask me how I know...
 

urbandork

New member
saved_1992":1mwr1se9 said:
well the best way i have found to do it is

put the engine on end straight up and down (crank pulley flat on the floor with the flywheel pointing up, then the tranny comes down from the top.
gravity will be your best friend, have done this way 3 times, has worked like a charm every time

agreed.

If i ever have to pull the trans and put it back on im doing it with the motor out of the car.
 

tubasteve

New member
Time, started to pull Trans in car last night@ 7pm, walked home around 10pm.

Returned this morning @ 10am, and will be driving home by 1.

I did the entire job by my self,i point this out cause i hate having people look over my shoulder, makes me think too hard.

Because of the normally task that it is,i now will have no real reason to sell my car.
 

Ironchief

New member
That's another +1 for the missile silo method. It was a bit sketchy but after struggling for 4 hours to get it on horizontally, the silo did the trick!
 

CSAlltrac

New member
I've done all the methods mentioned. Best method to worst is,
#1:Engine and trans pulled as unit, engine standing on timing side to stab trans.
#2: Engine and trans pulled as unit, small army to assist in stabbing trans.
#3: Engine in car, nightmare.
 

Killtodie

New member
I had recently removed and reinstalled my transmission. Got it out in under an hour. Took 4 hours to put it back in. Screw that silo method.

It's not THAT bad trying to put it back in, just needs a lot of leverage, two jacks and one good kick to slip it on.
 

MWP

New member
So if doing the missile silo method, how do you guys avoid damaging the end of the engine (timing belt cover, etc)?
 
Top