Having trouble getting motor separated from tranny...
 

I'm pulling the motor out of a 88 5-speed. I have everything loose and got the motor pulled forward from the tranny about 3/4 - 1" but I can't get them to separate. I have the motor & tranny up as high as they'll go with a jack under the tranny, and I've been adjusting the motor height up & down with the lift, trying to find the "magic" angle where they'll come apart. I've rocked the motor & tugged it forward, and pried between the two but something seems to be hanging up. I'm afraid if I pry or rock the motor too hard I'll damage something so I thought I'd ask in case there's something I'm not aware of. Nothing was mentioned in the manual, but it's a chincy one anyway... Any ideas would be appreciated!!

samething happened to me, theres bolts connecting the flywheel to the pressure plate.

Those bolts are supposed to be removed before the engine can come out??

Yes undo those bolts. Loosen a little at a time and turn the engine over (by turning the crankshaft bolt) to the next. It helps having a helper to turn til you see the next bolt, you want to go evenly to releive the pressure. there are 6 or so. then it will slide right off. Access them through the inspection covers on the tranny. Good luck.

ls there another way around this? The motor might be locked up, I just broke a socket extension trying to turn it over.

Since it is a manual transmission, there are no bolts holding the two together after all the bellhousing bolts are out. The only thing holding the tow peices together now is the output shaft and the pilot bearing. When these two freeze up together they are a bitch to get apart.

If there is a way to see the input shaft and get some WD40 to drain down to the pilot bearing then maybe you can work it loose a bit at a time, but that means tilting the trans up and the front of the engine down. What you are probably going to have to do is get a couple of prybars and stick them in opposite sides between the housing and the engine block and pry hard together. I had one stuck like that on a 22R racing engine and was really cussing up a storm when it finally came apart.

You don't have to unbolt any of the clutch parts or flywheel, it is just stuck. Maybe the disc is stuck to the output shaft splines.

Let us know.

Russ

well there are such bolts. not only do i say this but another person. me my pop and a bud all tried to get the two apart and spent maybe a whole day without success. next day i go to work, come home and there it is on the engine hoist. my dad said he and my lil bro undid the bolts and it came right off. i doesnt make sense to me either why there would be bolts there but obviously there are. also chiltons says this so... id also like to add i was working on a 87. i dont know if the other years would be diff or not...

http://www.cygnusx1.net/supra/librar.../mt/MT_05.html

This is how I did it...

btw, nate beautiful car

Well, I've tried prying but they're still stuck. I have some steel wedges and tapped them in between the motor & tranny to hold the gap I've gained so far, but I'm leary of continuing to drive them in too hard. I'm debating on it - has anyone done this or have any opinions on whether it would work or not? Is there much risk of damaging the bell housing by doing this? I'm not worried about the motor, I just don't want to tear up the tranny. I also wonder if anyone can tell me how far apart the motor & tranny need to come to completely disengage the input shaft to know if I'm close yet or is there still a ways to go?


Thanks!

Jp3z, the only bolts on a manual trans are the bell housing and the two things on the side that stabilize the lower part of the engine/trans. There is an inspection plate that has to come off to let it pll past the flywheel. There are no other bolts that have to be removed to separate the two.


On the automatic there are 5 or six bolts that holt the torque converter to the flywheel that makes separating the two easier, but still that is not necessary. You can still pull the torque converter straight out after you separate the engine/trans, so there is nothing holding it in after unbolting.

Like I said before, the output shaft is frozen to the outputshaft bearing in the back of the crank. I bent the back of the crank in my 22R engine slighlty just trying to remove the tranny. I pulled and jerked and swore and pried and finally the bearing pulled out with the output shaft. Everything being done, that is the only thing left and it can be a bitch to separate if they are stuck together, but not impossible.

Get big prybars, keep it close to the ground, but support the middle to keep the two parts as straight as possible. Don't give up, it will separate eventually. The only thing that will break is that pilot shaft bearing.

Good luck

Russ

Finally!
 

Just one word for anyone else who runs into this problem: porta-power! I'd never used one before, but my dad has one and brought it over for me. For those who may not be familiar with this, it's a hydraulic-jack-like device with different attachments that attach to a hose from the hydraulic cylinder. When you jack it, the attachments are activated for different types of motion. I used a "duckbill" spreader, and went from side to side spreading the motor & tranny apart then driving the wedges down to hold the gap I gained. It took about twenty trips side to side but it finally popped loose. I honestly don't think I would've gotten it without this, the duckbill has "1200 lbs" cast into it so I have to assume it exerts that much force when in use. It was all this thing could do to move the motor, and I was practically lying on top of it to jack it further when it finally popped free. My only concern now is the pressure plate, a few of the "fingers" appear to be slightly bowed out further than the rest of them.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who helped. I'm sure there'll be a few more questions as I proceed...!

i personally would replace the clutch and pressure plate if you havent done so or if it is not new. easy to do it now than after you get it back together. it would suck if you got your motor back in and little later down the road it goes bad.

I was told that the clutch assy (and several other parts) was replaced ~10k miles ago when the previous owner replaced a turbo bottom end with a n/a. They blew a piston, tore down the top end far enough to find the damage and stopped working on it. After they stopped on it, a close friend of mine bought it for parts and it sat in his garage for the past few years until I got it. Many of the parts look very low mileage, the turbo, radiator, etc, which makes me believe it was replaced - it looks like they replaced everything you'd expect if they planned to keep the car (obviously they should've researched the correct motor to use...). I have to remove the clutch assy & flywheel from the blown engine anyway so I'll check it before I reuse it.

Personally, I'd just bolt the tranny back on, drain the tranny, pull the driveshaft, disconnect all the wiring/clutch/speedometer stuff, and pull the tranny with the engine... that's what I did when I blew the engine in my supra and had to replace it. If you pull the tranny, beware that you take care of the back-up light switch connector, because they're hard to find if you break them.

retards...... you have to pull the clutch fork from the throwout bearing before attempting to remove the tranny..
on the bell housing there are two covers, remove them and u can see the fork...it has a pin and a "C" clip securing it... remove it an voila.... u r ready..