This may be a dumb question but I've been reading that you can usr a motorcycle jack to drop the transmission in a 944. Now I've also read that you need about 22" of ground clearance to do a clutch job. Now most motorcycle jack don't provide that kind of lift. What do you guys do different. Jack up the car less? Have a jack with more lift? Am I missing something?

 

If I had to guess the process would go something like: jack up car some, mount to transmission jack, disconnect transmission, jack up car the remainder of the 22 inches, slide out transmission,

 

My buddy and I used a regular floor jack with a small rachet strap. Nex time....I will buy a floor jack with a higher lift and build a small wood pallet for it before I remove it again. As far as the 22" of ground clearance we didn't have quite that much, but the more room the better it will go. And remember, if getting it out is a challenge, getting it back in will be a nightmare.

michael

 

a regular jack will do if it goes high enough, youll want a buddy to keep the tranny balanced on the jackpad though while you lower it from the car.

 

I bought a harbor freight transmission jack for less than $100. Was awesome. I don't know how much clearance is required, but I sure as hell didn't have 22 inches.

http://www.harborfreight.com/450-lb-...ack-39178.html

 

Did my Clutch about a month ago (87' 944na)

I had a Transmission Jack, but did not have enough clearance to use it; because the car was only on small jack stands... So instead I just used a regular floor jack; it's a two person job for sure.

The Transmission actually does not weigh too much.

After we lowered the Tranny down, we didn't have enough room to pull it out on the jack; So we actually put the Tranny on the floor and just slide it out from under the car.

Once out, I was able to pick up and carry the Transmission around!

I recommend installing a car lift in your garage! Ha ha!! It's just a long time to being laying on your back; great Abs workout though... My clutch job took me two full days; about 20 hours! I was taking my time and cleaning things along the way of course...

 

Did this with regular jack stands and the HF trans. jack.



As others said, I would drop the trans first and then worry about getting the car up in the air to the height you want to do the clutch.

 

i bought a harbor freight jack- atv jack- its like a standard jack but instead of a round pad it has a wide platform like a motorcycle jack- no bottle jack w/ large frame sticking up. I usually have to put the lift plates on that came with it and also a two by four or so to get the trans up far enough. The rest is muscle.

 

 

I do it with a normal floor jack. The tranny will balance on jack pad, but you need to find the right balance point. Is a little farther back than it appears since your eye makes it seem like the bell hosing is heavy. It is not. The flat behind the diff gear is balance point.

 

As far as using a motorcycle jack (which it appears is virtually identical to the HF "trans jack"), I had to use 4x4's both to level the trans and to lift it high enough. It still had more lift . Mine is not a HF jack, can't say if they are the same. It works great, have done it three times with this jack

 

When i Removed my Transmission I Dropped the whole Crossmember that the Tranny is mounted too.. This made it easy to balance and pull around.

Is this what everyone else has done?

 

I used a regular Jack, removed the jack pad, and replaced it with a home make wooden cradle. I balanced the tranny for and aft and used the cradle to keep it from twisting. Removed and installed the trans without any help.

 

You can do it with a full sized floor jack and high jack stands. After several trans removals and replacements, a friend gave me his Harbor Freight transmission jack. It works great with my Dewalt impact gun to power it.

For a one time deal, get someone to help and use the floor jack.

 

What worries me is that I would most likely be doing this alone. I would like to get a motorcycle jack as I work on bikes as well but just wanted to make sure I could do it alone. I don't have a big enough floor jack to use anyway.