Well the car is on jackstands, wheels are off, getting ready to pull the transmission tomorrow. I have looked at the FSM, but I've never removed the transmission while IN the car. I did it when I swapped the 3.5, but I simply removed both engine and tranny together.

Now, I don't want to pull the engine, just the tranny, can I remove it without removing the crossmember? It seems like there isn't much place between the end of the tranny and the frame, I don't want to hurt the clutch while taking it out.

 

You can do it without removing the crossmember, but it is considerably easier if you do. You just need to support the engine under the oil pan.

 

So I just put a jack under the oil pan? I have headers and I don't want to remove them, do I have to? When I did the swap I simply put the engine and tranny together, with headers and crossmember, then shoved the whole thing in under the car, it was quite easy, but I dont want to do it again.

 

it would make your life a lot easier if you removed the y-pipe portion of the headers and the crossmember. I've never tried to do it without removing those two, but there isn't much room down there as it is already

 

i thnk you can get away with not removing the y-pipe but you would need to remove the crossmember because there isn't much room to work with when you're trying to remove the shift rod bracket.

 

How I do it is take off the 2 front bolts that hold the crossmember in, lower the engine using a scissor jack, take the axles out, unbolt the tranny, slide out towards the driver side using a jack, and lower it. Easiest way ever.

 

How long would you expect it to take (just removal).

 

With 2 people, we removed my friend's auto tranny in about 45 min.

 

Cool thanks. Hopefully that'll leave me some time to work on the traction bars.

 

Becareful when you stick jack under oil pan you don't dent it, if you do you can end up starving your engine of oil... I think your meant to put a piece of wood between jack and oilpan to distribute weight more evenly

 

That is what I thought was implied. I aways put a 2x6 on the jack anyway, there's permanent dents on that piece of wood.

 

Well the transmission is out, thanks for the help. I used Nismo's method, just 2 bolts removed, but the headers stayed in place. Used 2 jacks (1 for the crossmember, another for the transmission). It took me a few hours, but I f*cked around alot, and took frequent breaks b/c I'm lazy.

The tranny is not very heavy, but it's tricky to lift well because of its shape. It's like carrying two 50 pound ***** between your legs.

 

im in the process of changing my rear main seal i have a couple of questions.
1.do you only need 1 jack under the oil pan to support just the engine?
2.how hard is it to change out the clutch
3.should i take out the center cross member?
4.i know act is a good clutch what about xtd?
5.how far does the tranny need to slide out once unbolted(not much room im sure more that 1 person would agree)
6.what was the easiest way you have removed the tranny.i.e. easiest method

i am a newb when it comes to this ive never dropped a tranny or a engine any information or tips on helping me would be very useful. thank you

 

Did you remove both axles or just the driver side?

 

I have removed my transmission by just pulling the driver side axle and then popping the tranny away from the passenger side axle at the same time you pull it away from the engine. That worked okay and it did save some time not having to pull the other axle, but it made it a bit more difficult reinstalling, since now you have to get the tranny close enough to the engine to get the axle started at the same time as working the input shaft into the clutch and lining up the dowels.

 

yeah i pulled my passenger side axle it was a pain i also just broke the rented tranny jack while the jack is still jacked up and of course i broke the realese thingy that lowers it

 

can someone help me out with the location of the speed sensor?

 

i didnt have a problem yanking my 5spd out without pulling both axles, just the drivers side. had two friends there to help tho with shoving it all back together because im weak. i didnt remove the crossmember either, just the y. you just have to jack up on the transmission to get the bottom two or three bellhousing bolts out. thats it though.

 

Well I removed my tranny this past weekend. I didn't need to remove the crossmember for the y-pipe. It would have taken longer if I did and it would have been a lot more work. I only pulled the driverside axle but that was the hugest pain trying to manuever the tranny around to finally come down. It kept getting hung up on the passenger side axle. If it is anywhere near as difficult putting it back in then I'm going to have to take out the passenger side axle, lifting 100 lbs up can get tiring very quickly. But now my tranny is at a shop getting fixed. Hopefully I get it back this week and it will be going back in this weekend and my car will be back in business.

 

Well I wish I had the tools to fix my tranny myself. It's costing me $1100. $600 for parts and $500 for labor.

 

How is everyone removing their tranny and supporting it on a jack?

Did you use a transmission jack? or did you rig something up to support the trans when its on a standard hydraulic jack?

Like it says in the HLH convert instructions, roll the transmission out thru the drivers wheel well - is this easy enough just resting on the top of normal jack? or is it a custom rig job?

 

Yes this is easy enough on a normal jack just use your hands to stable it. You will want help though to keep it from falling off the jack, so one person can stabilize it and the other can roll it out from under the car.

 

if you look at the wires coming out of the tranny, i think the speed sensor is the one that's a white plastic harness thing, and most the other ones are gray i think.

 

Ahh thats good news, cheers

 

i just bought an xtd clutch stage 3 looks good but we will soon see how its works once i get the flywheel here...3 more days...damn i miss my car...also does anyone kno if its true that you can use a pathfinder throttle body on a 4th gen max???

 

Betwwen me and my friend, Ive pulled the tranny on the A32 4 times so far. Not once did I have to remove the crossmember or the y pipe... much easier.

As for supporting the tranny, I bought a tranny adaptor jack from northerntool for about $50. All I had to do was just remove the saddle on my 3 ton jack and put the tranny adaptor saddle in. Made removing and installing the tranny a sinch. It can pivot and swivel so you can get the perfect angle when mounting it back up. Using that tool it only takes 5 min to correctly mount the tranny back in.

 

gotta link or it was a local store you purchase it from?

I've read in so many different thread to pull the cross member, pull the y-pipe, some pulled the y-pipe but not the cross member. Its confusing, I'll find out when I replace my oh so tired tranny and clutch.

 

Why would you have to ever remove the y-pipe?

 

Beats the **** outta me. Just like MDeezy said, a lot of people have started to float that **** around in various threads. Maybe they think it is easier to remove the crossmember (perhaps with the mounts still attached?!?) if the y pipe is outta the way. Hell the Hal 5spd swap instructions say to do it too!

 

www.northerntool.com

 

I had to pull my trans out 3 times on my own for various reasons. Each time I did it without removing the y-pipe and crossmember. Removing the crossmember would make it a bit easier to take out some bolts but It may take more time that way. I used a tranny jack to get mine out but getting it in was difficult. I had to pick it up from the tranny jack and wiggle it on there. Took some time but it works.

 

thanks. $44 good price. Adding this to list of tools needed.

 

No problem. Make sure it will fit your jack though.

 

I will, I gotta buy a jack also so I'll make sure it fits.

 

Cool. They got pretty good deals on jacks too. Just watch out for the shipping!!

 

I will thanks.