fraggle

Damaged during removal.



And the setscrew is still lodged in the shifter input shaft on the transaxle. I gave up for today.



Yeah it's blurry and it's a crummy cell phone camera, but you can see the problem.

this sucks. BEfore I got to this point, I tried heat, I tried PB blaster, more heat, more blaster (over night!). Then drilling, then brute force with a chisel.

Anyone have any advice while I search for well documented transaxle removal threads?? Anyone got one bookmarked?

F18Rep

Well, options are not pretty.
1) Place a nut over it and mig-weld into the center.
2) Grind it smooth and re-dimple (drill) it, which might be difficult with it installed. I guess I would be looking for those left-hand drill bits too. ...Bruce

Landseer

Pull trans and drill it.

1 day, albeit a long one.

blown 87

That is what I would do.

SQLGuy

Man that looks familiar!

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...acement-2.html

On mine, I ground down the old screw with an angle grinder and a Dremel, and then drilled a new hole with a right angle drill and also a right angle Dremel adapter, and some cobalt bits and a diamond bit.

From someone who's been right there, my condolensces.

fraggle

well I suppose it's nice to see I'm not alone in this failure. I tried an easy out early on but there just isn't enough space up there, at least with what I've got lying around.

Are there actual threads in the shaft the setscrew goes into? The new part makes it look like there isn't.

I was considering the dremel option for tomorrow, but I'd really like to be able to see things better and my back is killing me, so I think I'm going to go all the way and drop the transaxel. IF I had started that way I'd probably be on the way back together tomorrow.

Gives me an excuse to flop in an LSD anyway. Winter starts early, down she goes@!!!

SeanR

Had to deal with one of these last week. Ended up shaving the old bolt off, creating my own 'dimple' and shaping an M6 bolt to fit. Seems to have worked pretty well.

Rob Edwards

Nope, no threads in the shaft. What's a little strange is that the bevel on the tip of the setscrew is steeper than the bevel of the dimple in the input shaft.

Feeling lucky that the one time I had this problem the tranny was out of the car, and it was still a PITA to drill out.... My sympathies!

Mike Frye

Dude, been there, done that. Kept the remains of my coupler as a memento.

I did the same as SeanR. Ground it flat first (still wouldn't come out). Then drilled a new dimple and ground down and made a new conical bolt from a regular hex-head bolt.





I will NEVER have this problem again.

Kudos on seeing the bright side and getting LSD out of it. Well played sir!

fraggle

I'm actually a little surprised how common this problem seems to be, as I never heard of it before. I've head of the coupler failing, but not fighting the user for removal.

Well I got the exhaust and all the head shielding off last night before I completely gave up. Been hunting for a nice transmission drop thread and can't find one??? Maybe I'll have to make my own!!

Landseer

Its intuitive, especially for you, but make a good one if you can.

On the auto, I like to pull the TT still connected to the box. That way you don't struggle with the upper bolts like you and I did at Michaelathome's house.

The manual, separate TT from box. Do so without putting any lateral pressure on the input shaft, though.
You might need to put the jack under the engine oil pan to effect a little drop / pressure relief in the back of the car. Trans jack is the only way to go, btw.

When removing rear suspension, no need to open the brake hydraulics. Hang the calipers in the fender wells. The Ebrake cable pulls out of the body and goes with the suspension.

fraggle

Thanks for the tips. I've already disconnected the wires in the spare tire compartment and pushed them through the body, too. I'll pull the calipers off next. This is a manual, so I'll be disconnecting the TT from the box.

Landseer

Generally the shift coupler is less of an issue on the automatic.

fraggle

bah!!!

OK, I'm almost there, I think. Just a bit more advice -

You mention the ebrake cable slides all the way through, but I can't see any places where the sleeve disconnects from the body. Is it right there where it passes through? There's a lot of dirt! I've got it disconnected from the handle but don't want to yank on anything too hard.

The reverse light switch - do the wires unplug from there or do I remove the whole switch?

What should I expect when everything's unbolted? do I slide the whoile shebang back to disconnect it from the input shaft? I don't want to get surprised - there's a lot of weight there. I've got an ATV jack to help cradle it, though.

Otherwise things are moving smoothly so far. I'll be happier when everything is on the ground.

Landseer

Transmission gets chained to the stabilizer bar above it.

Ebrake cable is disconnected from the lever inside the car.

Then, grip the part outside the car as it leaves the body. Grip it with vice grips, tap on the vice grips with a hammer to unseat it from the body. Its a watertight fit with an oring.

Crossmember gets lowered WITHOUT transmission.
Axles get removed from transmission and come out with the crossmember!!!!