I'm in the midst of refurbishing the front and rear suspension of my '89. The entire rear suspension is removed including the crossmember and trailing arms. I have the transaxle supported.

I was about to replace the shifter coupling bushings and (trust me on this), there is no grub screw in the coupler. Oh, there's a place for it, but there's no screw, nor is there threads in the hole. I've put a mirror atop the coupling, and checked three time in disbelief. I have no idea what coupler is used or how it is secured to the shift rod. I figure that I might as well get a better look at it.

Thus, my question: can I separate the transaxle from the torque tube at the rear? Or, do I need to drop the tranaxle/TT as a unit?

Thanks,
Bob

 

You would be better off dropping the whole unit this will reduce the chance of damage to the input /5th gear on the trans.

since the coupler is missing its screw maybe it was JB welded into place,

NOTE remove the rear pinch bolt before dropping the TT trans assembly
once on the ground you may find that the TT bearings are in need of replacement

 

If you decide to keep the torque tube in, I have used the below jack a couple of times from horror freight tools with success. Both times, the TA slid off and on easily.

P.S. this method pretty much mimics the workshop manual except I used this jack and a chain to steady the TA before I dropped the rear crossmember. My only issue with the workshop manual was the order to undo the parking brake. I would wait until after you removed the drive axles. You need the resistance to remove the half shaft bolts.
http://www.harborfreight.com/450-lb-...ack-39178.html

 

IIRC, the set screw is on the side of the coupler.
There is a hole that looks like it should have a set screw on the top.

I've removed the transaxles a few different ways and have settled-on the way Stan suggests, TT attached. Safer and easier with home tools.

The jack shown above has nice reach, but its more of a motorcycle lift. Consider instead a trans jack, cost is about $120, which has a contact surface that adjusts in two planes, plus a retain chain.

 

Fwiw, the above is a trans jack and the horizontal plane is quite adjustable.

 

So it is, nice, I stand corrected.

 

That jack looks really handy for a number of jobs when you're solo under the car.

 

Actually, I did see that trams jack at HF, and with the 20% off coupon, it's a keeper. I'm so far into this project thus far, it would be criminal NOT to drop the trans and scour the caked-up crud on the casing. There's also a wire going to the rear cover of the trans; purpose??

Thanks so much for the replies!

Bob

 

Speedo pickup

 

remove the spare tire,
disconnect the wire harness for the trans,
and push it through to the outside of the chassis.

 

Picked up the HF trans jack, and it's a pretty good piece. I plan to follow Michael's lead with the TA removal first as the jack makes easy work do it. With only 70k miles on the car, would the TT bearings need replacement? No need to touch the pinch bolt if I'm not removing the TT, correct?

Per Landseer, the set screw is indeed on the side (duh!...), and I was able to round it out with a 4mm Allen socket without trying very hard. It cemented the TA removal plan, and I'll deal with the coupler once the TA is out.

 

I am not really sure what your plan of attack is BUT,
you better remove the rear pinch bolt before you drop the trans and TT or both,

NOTE it is much easier to do this while its in position,
NOTE it will make it easy to determine if the TT brgs are bad after you remove the TA
but the bolt has to be removed first to separate the two parts

 

Thank you for your patience, Merlin (?).

I've probably gotten this all wrong, but do I need to remove the entire bell housing with the TT? Or simply the lower housing cover to access the front pinch bolt and bolts holding the TT to the bell housing? What about the shifter? Isn't that mounted atop the TT along with the shift linkage?

How does one determine if the bearings are worn? Were that to be the case, is the TT rebuild a difficult proposition? I believe they're fine (given the 70,000 miles on the clock).

Trying not to go deeper than I need to is the honest truth.....

 

at this point you may find its easier to remove the front bell housing while its still connected to the TT .
The shifter will drop with the TT as its connected to the TT ,
also remove with the TT the foam pad being careful not to tear it.
the TT bearing are checked by spinning the shaft with it should spin with no noise and have a slight drag from the bearings, if it feels notchy now is the time to swap out the bearings and you wont ever have to be doing this again

 

Now that I've gotten the lower bellhousing cover off the car, I can see why removing the TA and TT together makes sense.

Once the cover was off, I noticed some rubber-like material in the bottom, which is clearly what is left of the insert for the clutch arm ball socket.

I've read that you need to place 2 spacers under the clutch cover to prevent it from fully releasing. Here's a photo of my clutch unit. Where would these spacers go?

so many questions.....