Hey all,

I was looking that MOTORVATE's clutch replacement how-to. It seems that I'll need to remove both drive axles, cv boots, just to remove the tranny. I have never done this kind of work before but I'm curious as to how long it'll take me if I do decide to go this alone.

Here is his write-up to remove the tranny:
- Remove the battery, air filter, mass air flow (MAF) sensor and everything else up to the throttle body.
- Drain the gear oil from the transmission.
- Remove the starter, speedometer sensor, clutch slave cylinder, front exhaust, and crankshaft position sensor.
- Disconnect the gear position switch, and ground wire on the transmission.
- Remove the crankshaft position sensor, and BOTH drive axles.
- Support the front of the engine, and remove the front and rear motor mount as one piece.
- carefully remove the transmission mount.
- Remove all transmission bolts except for one at the top. Crawl under the car, remove the last bolt, and carefully lower the transmission on to your chest.
- follow steps for clutch removal and installation

What worries me is the removal of the drive axles. I have never taken one off but I'm curious, how long will all this will take I really only have evenings and I don't want to frack things up and make them worse by working on a cold car.

How long will all this take me?

Difficult to say. If the passenger side axle is rusted to the support bracket, prepare for a long battle. If not, pulling both axles can take less than an hour.

It took me and a friend of mine a long time to do it, like 14 hours, but we had both never done it before, and my car was rusted like a BAMF. So prepare for it to take a long time, especially by yourself

Yeah I did it for the first time with a guy helping me who had done other clutches before but not Nissan. It took us probably about 12 hours divided up over 4 nights. If we had done it in a solid day it probably would have been about 10. We also replaced the CV boots while the axles were out so that was another hour or so.

Really IMO the toughest part was disconnecting the exhaust as the bolts were all well rusted. Everything else went pretty smoothly. Make sure you have all your parts before hand, (especially GL-4 transmission oil 95% chance you won't find it in any store so it must be ordered online)

I've taken it on and off so many times that i could do this in 4 hours at this point. If you've never done it, i think its safe to say it will probably take you ten. It isnt that difficult, just takes time and just do everything in reverse of dissasembly. I've converted with a friend an auto to 5spd and that took us about 15-20hrs straight during a weekend and this is far easier.


There is no need to remove the two motor mounts, just the tranny mount. You can unscrew it after you take your battery out. I wouldn't even touch the two mounts on the cross member. If you want, you could loosen the crossmember to lower it a bit, but I didnt find it necessary. Just make sure you jack the car high enough and put it on jack stands. The first time I did it, I used a jack to lower the tranny, but honestly thats just a waste of time. Just lay underneath and drop the tranny on your chest. Its only a bit over 100 lbs, so if you can lift a plate on a bench press, you won't have a problem. Everything else you said before sounds right. Remove everything under hood (intake, etc), then wheels, axles. That bracket on the passenger side axle could be a pain but you could always unscrew the whole bracket. Drain the gear oil first, unless you want it to pour out when you take out the axles. Axles are not hart to get out, just sort of push in and yank them out. If the boots are torn on your axles, this would be a good time to take care of that (autzone?). Also, I did not touch my exhaust at all, but I do have an aftermarket ypipe, so maybe that gave me some extra room. Either way, have plenty of patience, good amount of extensions, a torque wrench, some of those extension pieces that will let you go at bolts on an angle and just take your time. Good luck.

make sure you take a wizz wheel or sandpaper and clean up the mating surface between engine and trans while you are there. This is supposedly why lotsa of people having starting problems.

you mean a 'cookie'
cookies are goood

Thanks for the tips guys. In either case sounds like it's a day's worth of work. Good tip ffcbairn on replacing the boots while I'm at it. If a garage were to do this for me, how many hours for labour? Is 4 standard?

Not sure, but if I were you I would do it myself and save 400 bucks or so of labor, as it isn't that hard. A shop should be able to do it in 4 hrs, though dont expect yourself to be able to, especially if you never did it before.

agreed on the 4hr job of disassembly. You could prob do it faster w/proper experience and tools. It's pretty much straightforward. When u take the bolts off that mate the tranny to the engine, remember where the bolts go (some are short, some long). It'll save hassle when u reinstall.

I didn't remove any exhaust part

I removed the crossbar, but left the mounts.

And yeah, u don't need a jack... You can either bench press it as stated above (i'm 130lbs and could do it) or go from above and grab the hole where the starter goes.

Jae

Uhh, yeah don't count on getting the tranny out safely using just muscle. It's hard to hold, pointy in some places, and your arms will be very bent (poor leverage). I know I'm weak, but it's just not worth breaking bones to find out you're as weak as me.

I used a bar across the engine bay and a ratcheting winch strap ($10) to support the tranny both in/out. Wrap the strap exactly around the seam in the tranny housings and it will balance on just the strap.

Replacing the axle boots is a PITA. Aside from saving an alignment, it's not a big deal to wait until later. Changing just the boots is messy, very messy, and there are more Fun Things and frustrations to learn when you get into them. When you decide the boots are getting too old, I recommend just getting a rebuilt axle for raxles.com.

Dave

I found that it was easier to maneuver and align the bolt holes when u don't use a jack.

Jae

so were all of you guys using hand tools and it took that long?? i work in a shop so i have access to all the airtools and stuff.. think it'd still take 4-6hours to get out/in with air?

For complete removal of both cv's shouldnt take you any longer than 1 hour, if it does something has gone really wrong.

Blanket statements like this really smell of ignorance.

If it's your first time doing a job like this, and you don't have air tools or lots of fancy stuff, and these parts have never been disassembled before and are rusted fast, it's not going to take an hour.

Dave

OK not that I am going to sit here and argue with you on this, but honestly there are no fancy tools or air tools required for axle removal. A breaker bar and a 36mm socket and a 12mm gear wrench don't qualify as "special" or "fancy" tools. Anyone that knows me well on here, knows that I have worked on many maxima's in a lot of different conditions, and honestly to remove two axles it shouldn't take more than a hour. Hence why I said soak the damn bolts in wd-40 and then do the removal on the driver side while you wait on the bolts for the passenger side. If this doesnt work for you well then sorry better luck next try. And really if this is what makes you feel better by jumping in and making a stupid statement like then by all means keep looking like a idiot. How much thought did you really put into that anyway. Clearly not much since that all you could come up with. And here if it makes you feel better, I will correct my previous statement. It may take you longer than an hour, if it does then you have obviously run into some difficult bolts or some other form of issues with removal. Does that make you feel better, since you feel my perivous statement smelled of ignorance.

And may I add Fork,

I am sorry for hijacking your thread to argue with ignorant people about something that is unnecessary. Had he not made his comment this would have been left alone and you could have just judged it yourself and gone on with the job, and let us know how long it took you.

Removing both axles is unneccessary, only the driver's side axle needs to be removed to pull the transmission out of the car.

The transmission weighs 109lbs and you will NOT be able to support it by yourself unless you are one of those scandanavian strong men you see pulling semi trucks on ESPN late at night. The awkward positioning of it and your arms makes it impossible - don't try it, you may end up crushing your head, chest, arm, or at least dropping the transmission which is less than ideal.

Papasmurf how's Nightrider doing? Has he beaten any R1s with his bolt on 15 second auto max recently?

Hahaha actually I think he beat a f-16 the other day!

Anyway you always make good points and have a great bit of knowledge and I will admit when I am wrong or have not included something in my post, and your right. Doing it by hand is not a great idea. I have actually done the drop it on my chest but I wouldnt advise it for most. But you are right you dont have to pull the other axle but I find it is easier to get it out of the way and one less thing to try to align while your putting the tranny back in. Anyway, how are things, hopefully all is good with you and the fam... how was your christmas. Anyway I will catch you later.Back to work...ha thats funny...

Yep, that's pretty much my point. Thanks.

It's not a job that a first-timer should attempt 90minutes before they need to use the car to get to work. If you've done this before, already have the right tools on hand, and know the routine it's a one-hour job, tops.

Dave

OK well good deal. I agree and no hard feelings...you are right though first timer should not attempt this if he needs the car that same day, if you have a weekend with nothing to do then have at it.

Bruce

i can do the whole thing in seven hours......

i'll probably be contacting you soon, lol

I say pull the passenger side axle too its only an addition hours work total

Agreed w/this... the 1st time I removed the tranny from my car I just did the driver side.
Jae

I can't remember the last time I used an air tool for basic jobs such as changing clutch. Like stated before, soak the nuts/bolts w/penetrating oil and use a proper breaker bar. Plus it takes too long for me to lug out my air compressor and charge it up, then hear it re-pressurizing itself every so often.
Jae

w/ hand tools i'd give myself a full day to do it. w/ air tools, maybe half a day.

+ 99 million


The above should not be overlooked!