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One can certainly get a wrench on the upper TT bolts with the clutch in, but I just went out and played with the upper bolts on the Cobalt car using a 3/8" Craftsman torque wrench- MAYBE with the release arm off the ball you could get enough room to get one click on the wrench, but not with it in place.
To torque it up, couldn't you could measure the wrench, and then use a cheap digital hanging scale to pull the end of the wrench sideways, thus measuring the force applied to it? It needn't be an actual torque wrench.
Seriously though, once you can get your fingers on the TT bolts, it takes less than a 1/2 hour to drop the clutch. Hell, I can probably drop the clutch and get the TT unbolted with normal tools faster than futzing through the peephole between the shaft and the housing.
One can certainly get a wrench on the upper TT bolts with the clutch in, but I just went out and played with the upper bolts on the Cobalt car using a 3/8" Craftsman torque wrench- MAYBE with the release arm off the ball you could get enough room to get one click on the wrench, but not with it in place.
Here's a gearwrench on the upper bolt, there's 1 tooth's worth of rotation
to work with, with the release arm on the ball.
yeah, that's how to do it. you don't need a torque wrench to put it all back. just go as tight as you can and that would probably be enough. last few degrees with the gear wrench would be all.... .threading it in, with the right angle twist, socket wrench.
this would be and was a lot easier and less time than pulling the clutch out
I am also grateful to have read this thread and the info that Colin provided to the community. I used his technique on the 79 and while I ended up struggling to get the drive shaft in its proper place, that was completely un-related to the advice offered and was 100% user error.
I think that there are a number of people on this thread that don't understand the purpose of a torque wrench. Some folks seem to think that the only thing a torque wrench is good for is making bolts too tight and some seem to think that torque specifications are a suggestion and that as long as the fastener isn't tighter than the spec then all's well.
I have a 928 here that had the rear suspension, transaxle, and torque tube R&R'd by someone else a couple of years ago. Not everything that should have been done at that point was done and those big bits are out of it again.
During disassembly I found every single bolt to be too loose and a couple of them starting to back out.
Colin et. al., thanks again for this thread. Just followed it for my LSD install. Yes you can do this without removing clutch ( and yes, the upper front TT bolts are a pain), and you can do it yourself with some patience and a small transmission lift.
Working by myself, I found it useful to re-attach the TT to the transmission before re-installing. This let me easily lever and rock the whole assembly forward, with the fulcrum being the lowest part of the transmission resting on my transmission lift. The transmission was strapped to the lift right around that point too, to prevent falling off, but with enough stretch in the belt to allow the rocking.
Rocking it forward was the only way to get the transmission in or out in my case, as even my largest sockets wedged between the cross member and the body provided very tight clearance.
I don't have any great pictures of the process and my hands were full, but below is a shot of the final stage preparing for install
Best we could do last week was just under an hour for automatic.If i did not have to use a
fire wrench it might have been just a half hour
Part;s car , no engine
Does anyone can advice if it is 4 or 3 speed ?
922 331 271 00 01
R116 271 00 01
Thx
@Lizard928
Thanks for this old thread. Soon I'll be doing a trans swap to an LSD unit that Greg rebuilt; your solution this seems to be the best path forward for me as I'll be doing the work on a 4-post lift. A few questions if you don't mind...
1. Did you remove the wheels? If so, wouldn't leaving them attached add weight to the crossmember and thus make it easier to separate from the chassis in order to insert the sockets (spacers)?
2. How much effort did it take to pull down on the crossmember to get the sockets (spacers) inserted? I'm kind of a slim person so that might be an issue for me if I'm working alone.
3. When you reinstalled everything, did you find that it was easier to put the trans and TT in separately or already mated together?
01-25-2015, 05:37 AM
