and the calculus book bursts into flames, explodes and leaves you $9k in the hole.

 

Sorry I have not followed all the discussion, and it seems that you may perhaps have jumped ahead and not heeded advice given by others. However, that's all water under the bridge. What you have to focus on now is remaining calm and analytical. You can conquer this without cutting up the car!

1) This likely was already mentioned, but just in case: Did you COMPLETELY remove the two coupler socket screws from the coupler? Just loosening them is not enough, they have to come out.

2) as was advised above, once the transaxle housing is unbolted, and the weight of the transaxle is shared by the coupler, it will be very hard to further move the coupler. It sounds like bolting the transaxle up is not working, but make sure you give it a good try first.

3) From the sounds of it, the transaxle is as far back as it will go, which means you have a gap something less than an inch I believe. It sounds like you have been able to fit a hacksaw in. You know, this may be the best option now. Will it take a few hours? Yeah, maybe, but just accept the pain and resign yourself to it. Get a bunch of good quality bi-metal hacksaw blades. Starret is a great brand. Get something in the 28 to 32 TPI range and buy a dozen at least and change them often. Pressure on the forward stroke, light on the pull back. Wear eye protection, put on some good music and live through it! If you can somehow "lengthen" the saw's handle you should be able to get a reasonable stroke with some semblance of comfort. At that stage, I would gladly take an hour-or-so to rig up something that will make the job more feasible.

4) The other option, drop the rear suspension (maybe just a partial drop will do it) and slide the transaxle and torque tube out as a unit.

Between numbers 3 and 4 I would choose 4.

 

yeah looks like only choice is to cut it now.

if I cut in the wrong spot with the shaft under it wouldn't the hacksaw blade damage the tq tube or tran shaft?

I have to cut through that tiny inspection hole and you can't really apply much pressure. I was thinking of buying a dremel with snake extension for tight spots and maybe cutting with a carbide cutting bit?

but I'm scared of cutting into the shafts and causing more damage.

 

find someone close to you with a plasma cutter it will take all of a minute

 

hack saw. how fitting...

Anyway, when people were talking about not damaging the shaft, they were talking about using a cutoff wheel or sawzall- not a hack saw. You will be fine with the hack saw, just probably a little worn out afterward.

 

if you accidentally get down to the driveshaft chances are your hacksaw will be ruined, not the shaft

 

what this guy really needs to do is just flip the car upside down so he can really get after that damn coupler.

 

damn straight

 

Theres a slot in the coupler that lets you see the shafts, youll just have to rotate it. Have someone hold the clutch pedal down (or brace it using a stick or something) then you should be able to spin the shafts to see the slot. Then just cut at the point between the ends of the shafts.

You can also try to pry the coupler open a bit, using a pry bar or something in that slot. That MIGHT make it loose enough to get the shafts out but I dont know.

 

so the couple is not made out of hardened steel? if it is then i'm just wasting my time with the hacksaw. I swear I was trying to cut that coupler for 10 minutes the other day and all I did was put some deep scratches into it lols

I might just have to continue to be persistent with cutting it or maybe get a dremel with the snake extension / carbide bit. not sure if that would fit in the tight spot and work.

 

the coupler is only designed to be strong enough to hold the two spinning shafts together at the same speed. its pretty safe to say that the softer metal used in the coupler is so that it would be the first part to fail, making it a relatively simple replacement

 

Take pics of the cutting procedure. Be sure to really do a nasty job. Cutting p-cars is cool.

 

hehe. no you guys made me change my mind about cutting out the spare tire area.

put i'm going to go and buy a dremel with a snake attachment for tight spots then get a cut off wheel for cutting steel.

does anyone know if a dremel would even cut through that thick steel. i know dremels aren't designed for heavy duty cutting through thick metal but it might work faster than a hacksaw. I'm not even sure if the snake attachment would be small enough to fit into the inspection hole.

a dremel would definately damage the trans input shaft though so that's a little risky. I don't want to have to buy a used trans also as min is perfectly fine.

 

Dremels cut through anything you are likely to find on a car. The fiber reinforced cutting discs are great. The non-reinforced ones break very very easily.

 

Other people might hate me for this, but I see no problem cutting that spare tire well out. It weighs allot and it's useless, probably save 25-20lbs. get someone to weld you a flat piece on after you are done, wouldn't cost too much.