February 18, 2006 - 2 Steps Backwards (1)

I was away from the install for just over a month because I traveled for work and went on a few personal weekend trips.  On January 21, Dad worked alone and removed the intake, Intake Manifold Runner Controls (IMRCs), fuel rails, injectors, emptied the coolant and removed the coolant crossover tube.

This work was actually a big help to the tranny removal because it opened up a lot of space above the transmission and allowed me to reach down from the engine bay and loosen the top two, incredibly difficult to reach, bolts.  Removing the bolts this way was a breeze, if you're doing intake work and transmission work at the same time I highly recommend removing the top two bolts this way.  It'll save a ton of aggravation.  My spirits were up about the removal and I was pretty sure we could get the tranny out without having to remove the driver side header and turbo.  I really didn't want to undo work that we had already completed.

With all of the transmission to block bolts out we moved our transmission jack into place.  A transmission jack is a very helpful tool for removing and installing t-45s.  I'd say it's a must have for this transmission, although I know some people don't use them.  I've tried it without the transmission jack and I definitely prefer using one.  We put the jack towards the rear of the tranny and raised it up just enough so we could get the scissor jack off of the tail housing.  Now all we had to do was slide the transmission jack back (it has wheels), lower it, slide it back, lower it... until the input shaft cleared the pressure plate fingers.  If only it was that easy...

We were able to move the transmission back a few inches, it was separated from the block and it seemed like there might be just enough room to lower it without having to jack the engine up anymore.  The problem was the back of the bell housing was hitting the sheet metal and there just wasn't enough room for the input shaft to clear the pressure plate.  We tried everything we could think of to get the clearance but nothing worked.  Unfortunately we'd have to remove the driver side header to get the clearance we needed.  I remembered putting the passenger side header on with the K-member already installed and it was too bad.  A few of the bolts were hard to get to but I've definitely been involved in more frustrating situations.  I hoped the driver side would be similar.  I grabbed the 13 mm ratcheting, box-end wrench, the 1/4" drive ratchet with some extensions and a universal, and the 13 mm socket before I sat down in front of the header.

The removal was, well, a royal pain in the ass.  I had to stop a few times because I just couldn't get my hand and tools into position to remove the bolts.  The incredibly difficult task of removing the driver side header convinced me, however, that we did the header/k-member install correctly.  Installing the driver side header, k-member, and then passenger side header was the right thing to do, without a doubt.  After what seemed like an eternity I had all of the bolts out and the driver side header in my hands.  Now, hopefully, we could jack the engine up a few inches and the transmission would slide out.  And, to be completely honest, that's exactly what happened, with the header out of the way we had plenty of room for the input shaft to clear the pressure plate.  The transmission was out and we'd had enough so we called it a day.