borland

When you heat the case in an oven and freeze the TC bearing, they just drop in. No pressing required.

Bill Ball

It must be darn good grease. The shaft did not spin freely like dry bearings. There was no play either. I was having trouble getting the carriers out. Would not budge with 3" PVC pipe pieces, a wood block and a 5lb sledge. Then they resisted a hydraulic jack being rigged as a ram. I was considering buying the HF ram kit that some others have used, but I thought I'd just put it back in rather than continue to fix it until I broke it. I think the tranny may need some work in the next year or so, in which case I'll do this the right way then.

Yes, I thought about that, but the kitchen oven was the only thing big enough and freezing alone required very light pressing. A little local heating around the center of the cover with a torch would work just as well as heating the whole thing in an oven. I did that with rear bearing hubs and it worked well. Anyway, I agree heating the cover and freezing the bearing should obviate the need for a press, if you can get the cover apart and the bearings out with pullers or chisel and hammer (like front wheel bearing races).

Bill Ball

Well, it's all back togther. The TC cover bearings were not the source of the whine or vibration. The loudest spot, listening with a hose, is the differential cover at the very rear. Nothing in the differential should be moving if the car is sitting in park, so the noise must be from somehwere in the tranny and being amplified by the diff carrier. It's definitely loudest at the rear and very hard to hear anywhere else. So, I guess someday I'll either do a tranny swap or rebuild. It is a classic bearing whine.

I'm going to look for the vibration elsewhere. Since it's road speed related I never had much hope it was the TC bearings, but since Schocki found his high-speed vibration was related the failed TC bearings, I gave it a shot.

BTW, there's no leak at the TC even though I manhandled it while trying to get it out before I gave up and pushed it back in.

borland

The transmission uses planetary gears, so any vibrations would be from a torque converter imbalance. The whinning noise could be from several sources, including the main pump. Not necessarily, bearing noise related to the torque converter, as you may first suspect.

I would do a teardown, but you might consider watching for a used tranny from a seller on eBay.

SharkSkin

A bit late to the party perhaps, but here's what worked for me... like buttah.



On my OB, the passenger side bolt was the hard one to get to. The above combination made it simple:

SRaouf

I Know its an old thread but though I would add my two cents having just spent 2 days get the top bell housing bolts off. Needless to say soak in penetrating fluid for a few days beforehand
- Drivers side (RHD) wasnt too bad as you can just get a 1/2" breaker bar with a shallow 19mm socket in there but
- the other side was a real pain. 19mm ratchet spanner with a flexible head is what worked in the end.
- If you disconnect the exhaust from the manifold there is a small gap and you can see the bolt from underneath and using a long screwdriver you can seat the spanner on the bolt so the shaft is horizontal
- use an extension to whack the spanner with a hammer from above as many time as you can before it flys off the bolt
- repeat about 10 times
- finally attach the spanner to the bolt and extend it using another interlocking spanner. Pull and its should start to loosen. Bolts largely intact but some slight rounding at the corners so will replace when refitting.
I found both bolts had the threads coated with copper grease so I think the reason they were so tight is bimetal corrosion between the inside of the bolt head (steel) and the surface of the bell housing (Alum). Might be an idea to make sure you coat the inside of the bolt head and not just the threads next time you do this.