Guys, I need to do a clutch replacement over the holiday weekend. I trying to avoid buying a transmission jack because of cost. Would it be possible to remove the Maxima's transmission with a vanilla shop jack (like this)? Also, will standard jack stands (like these) life the car high enough? I'm worried that I'll get the transmission off of the engine and not be able to pull it from under the car.

Thanks everyone.

 

I'm sure you can get it to work with blocks of wood for both...I've used those jack stands with blocks of wood to jack up the front end high enough for exhaust work. You should be able to do the same for the tranny removal.

I would get the help from a buddy on using the jack to lower the tranny, even with a block as support. It might get dicey from a balance point, but should work ok.

 

I had mine on jackstands in the garage and was able to drop the tranny and get it out from under the car. You might look into renting the tranny jack. I did it by myself without one, but it's very dangerous and a tad frustrating. Especially lifting it back up and mating it to the block while underneath it. Not really that smart, but it's all back together now. (I also found out later the same friend I borrowed the hoist from to do my oil pan had a tranny jack in his garage. ) As long as you have the axle out, the strut unbolted from the spindle, and the brakes off, there's plenty of room with standard jackstands. I do think my floor jack has 18" of travel, though.

 

Alright. It's good to hear that a standard jack will be enough but, the use of wood for the extra height is a bit scary. I certainly will get a transmission jack for the added safety and, I may also get some high lift jack stands. I'd prefer not to have to put the jack stands on wood to get the extra lift.

 

Depends on the wood you use...I had access to nice hard wood blocks which were wider than the jack stand bases.

 

Just use a wood block on top of your floor jack, jack it to maximum and use jack stands.
I used this methods many times.

For the Max, a ply wood piece with blocks shaped to accomodate the tranny, makes it easier to get it back in. It is fairly heavy compared to my mirage cartboard gearbox.

 

Right. I don't have access to such pieces of wood. Instead of buying the extra wood, I'd rather just spend the money on a pair of high lift jack stands.

By chance, does anyone know what the overall dimensions of the transmission are? I'm at work and I do not have access to the FSM.

 

I do not have a transmission in front of me, but with the ruler on my desk, I would say it is around 16 inches high.

I have a spare transmission at home, Ill try to take measurement tonight.

 

16 inches isn't bad. Thanks.

 

I've never had to jack a FWD car up more than a standard floor jack would go to do a trans job. I also DON'T actually recommend the big jack stands for use with a Maxima or most other cars. A lot of standard floor jacks won't lift high enough to get the car up on them. They're great if you've got a truck to lift, but useless for a car, in my experience. If you go too high with the car, then you can't use a floor jack to get the trans down anyway, without massive, unsafe blocks of wood on the jack to make up the difference. One thing that may help with lowering/lifting the trans is to strap it to the jack pad with a nylon ratchet strap or two.

 

Good to hear, Vinco.