Hi all,
I just successfully replaced my failed transmission with a Basix-HP rebuild from Triple Edge Performance!!! WOOHOO! This is a big deal for me as I had literally never been under a car on Friday, and had replaced a transmission by Monday. I referenced BillBoost's excellent write-up (http://www.grandprixforums.net/threa...nsmission-Help!).
HOWEVER: I had lots of difficulty, being inexperienced in this area, and everything took forever. Knowing what I know now, I bet I could do this several times faster. I'd like to share some tips from my experiences as an addendum to BillBoost's tutorial, to help future DIYers.
I realize that most people who attempt a tranny swap know what they're doing and don't need this extra info. But for those like me who want to give it a go, I'll try to save you some time with super basic stuff that was not obvious for a beginner like me and that I learned the hard way. I apologize for not having photos. The following text is copied from BillBoost's writeup with my comments in bold. Please see his actual write-up for excellent photos, and read his whole thread for more info! Let's go:
Disconnect negative battery cable
Pop shifter cable off of selector arm
-located roughly below the brake fluid reservoir. just pops straight up, no clips or bolts or anything.
Unplug 2 connectors at trans range position switch (97-99ish)
-in roughly the same area as the selector arm. NOTE: DO NOT forget the main trans connector as well, which is circular and further forward toward the front of the car.
-I made that mistake, because I'm a moron, and nearly tore the wires when it came time to lower the tranny.
Remove 2 13mm bolts holding shifter cable bracket to trans (keep cable in bracket)
Remove 15mm nut on from lower trans to engine bolt location to remove negative cable from that stud.
-this bolt is double-sided. It will have to come out later for the tranny to separate from the engine. I removed its nut but forgot the bolt itself. There's a step about this below where I'll explain further.
Support engine with fixture or 4x4 and chain (Make sure this is well done and it's taunt, your life will rely on it)
-borrowing an engine hoist might be an option to consider as well.
Jack the car pretty high and support from drip edge (factory jacking location in front along door sill)
Drain trans fluid (10mm)
Remove both front tires (19mm)
Remove splash shields that keep you from seeing trans/engine (phillips/pop clips)
Remove cotter pins from ball joints
Remove ball joint castle nuts (18mm)
Remove the two bolts (18mm both sides) that hold the ps rack to the subframe
-I couldn't remove the bolts after removing the nuts; the sway bar was in the way. I actually ended up unbolting the sway bar on both sides (not just the end links but the actual isolation mounts) to allow it to wiggle around, allowing these bolts to come out. Perhaps I'm missing a trick. Feel free to correct me if so.
Remove both sway bar end links (stock 13mm)
Disconnect ABS sensors from wiring
Remove 10mm bolt that holds brake line bracket to body in wheel well
Remove both axle nuts (stock 36mm, aftermarket typically 34mm)
Leaving axle nut on end of spline hit (to not mess up threads) the axle inward until it's freed from the hub and moving
-This means both axle threads AND nut threads. Leave it EXACTLY FLUSH WITH THE THREADS to hammer at the axle. If the nut is too far in, you'll mess up the axle. If it's too far out, you'll mess up the nut itself. That's what I did. Had to buy another from the dealer.
Using a long prybar have an assistant pry down on the lower control arm while you hit the balljoint to free it from the knuckle
-on my car at least, just pushing down on the end of the A-arm really hard by hand worked okay too. Same for reinstall.
Remove both axles from hubs
Remove axles from trans
-OKAY, this was my first major hiccup. The passenger side wasn't terrible. One person sort of grasped the axle as close to the tranny as possible and jerked it backward, over and over, while a helper positioned a crowbar on it and banged away with a sledgehammer. It popped out a little bit (the snap ring releasing), then we stopped with the crowbar and just carefully pulled straight out. It's important to pull STRAIGHT out from the tranny. The clearances are so tight that pulling at even a slight angle results in tons more resistance to your efforts. It's also safe for a helper to put quite a bit of force on the brake/hub assembly to move the darned thing out of the way temporarily while you work.
-the driver's side SUCKED. Apparently this is fairly typical. Releasing the snap ring is the key, but this can only be done with considerable impact. A different strategy finally worked. One person applied CONSTANT pulling pressure on the axle while the other person delivered a blow to the crowbar with the sledgehammer. It seems that it's NOT about PRYING the axle out, as much as applying an impulse to it to dislodge the snap ring. It slides out easily after that. So instead of using the crowbar to PRY, just position it near the tranny against the axle and whack it to provide that impact, while the other person steadily provides pulling pressure on the axle as a whole.
NOTE: This method did not work with anything except a cast iron, very heavy, long crowbar. I think the plastic handles on pry bars were absorbing some of the energy. Try an all-metal implement to transmit the impulse from the hammer to the axle. Remember, it really seems to be about impact plus steady pressure, rather than a "prying" force.
Remove any clips holding ps lines, wires, abs sensor wiring etc to subframe
-probably varies by car, idk. For me, there were a few clips holding a PS cooling loop and that's it.
Remove 4 18mm bolts holding subframe to body, slide out of way
-BE CAREFUL dropping the subframe! I used two jacks, one on each side. Worked well.
-WARNING: the PS rack, even though the bolts had been removed in an above step, came down with it. Tap with a hammer to encourage the two to separate.
-reinstall: the PS rack was the only difficult part I had in terms of alignment. Lots of WD-40, lots of shaking the steering wheel and subframe to get them to slide back together. Prying with screwdrivers. Alignment bars may help as well. I just pryed with screwdrivers, wiggled the steering wheel, and screamed at it until it worked. DO NOT turn the steering wheel, just wiggle it, or you are going to have a bad day.
Remove starter plastic shroud (POS in way of bolts (10mm))
-Why we love BillBoost ^^^
Remove starter (2 15mm bolts, then wiring held on by 8mm and 13mm)
-Make a note of what wires go where. And how many there are. For me (may vary!!) one bolt had 1 wire, one bolt had 3... including both red and black -_-
Remove plastic flywheel shield (10mm)
Remove 3 flex to torque converter bolts (18mm) you can turn flywheel with screwdriver
-requires surprising amount of force to turn flywheel. You're turning the engine over, after all.
-will also need same screwdriver to PREVENT it from turning while you're torquing bolts.
At passenger wheel area:
Disconnect VSS sensor on diff cover of trans
Remove trans to engine diff bracket (4 13mm)
Use extenions and deep 18mm socket to remove bolt that goes from engine into trans on the back of the engine.
-pain in the everything. Use magnetic stuff or deep socket to prevent dropping the bolt. Half inch extensions actually got stuck against part of the trans and an oil sensor, so I ended up having to use 3/8 stuff instead.
-reinstall: difficult. carefully align as best you can. Use jacks to provide adjustment to help align the bolt with the hole if needed. Adjust tightness of top 4 bolts as needed as well. When the trans is pretty well aligned, put the bolt against the hole and hold/push it with a socket, then have a helper shake the engine until the bolt slides into the hole.
Support trans from below with trans jack/atv jack etc
-or two normal jacks in my case. worked alright. think about where the CG is likely to be.
Remove 4 (18mm) bolts holding trans to engine from above
-one of these is the evil double bolt described earlier. Of the 4 bolts, it's the one that's lowest and furthest to the left, viewed from the driver's side fender.
Pry trans off engine and lower
-if it doesn't come relatively easily, either you've forgotten a bolt like me, or there isn't enough support from the jack(s), or the support isn't in the right place. Try moving the support location and height. Closer to the passenger side worked well for me. Pry carefully from above when you can, or even more carefully from below (stick the bar/screwdriver between the flywheel and torque converter.)
-use the (2) alignment pins to support and guide it in.
When trans is down, remove 1 10mm bolt holding dipstick tube in trans and pull tube out.
-reinstall: do this carefully. Remember where the dipstick goes from above, slide it in, insert it into the trans and bolt it down while the new tranny is jacked PARTWAY back up toward the engine. CLEAN the dipstick and keep it clean while it's out of the car. Lube it with ATF if needed to push it back in through the rubber grommet. I didn't need to, just required quite a bit of force.
Slide trans out
Reverse for install
And that's it
If you have a new/rebuilt tranny, be smart about ATF fill, first start, and break-in.
The advice from TEP was as follows:
Add 6 qts
Start engine with tranny in park
Immediately begin adding more until full (I added 6 more, then spent 3 minutes in each gear (P, R, N, D, 3, 2, 1), then checked level. Added 1 more quart and was perfect.)
If using new cooler, you'll need more fluid than if not. You probably should be using a new cooler if your old tranny failed violently. Or at least flush the stock one... but if you're going to go through that trouble, why not upgrade to a better cooler while at it and be sure it's free of contamination?
Comments/suggestions welcome!
Thanks to BillBoost for the write-up that made this possible, and everyone who helped me out on my "HLEP MY TRANNY DED" thread and several other threads in the past.
-Komrad36
