Please help with Gearbox removal & knocking noise

[rnd]

Hi all. Can anyone give me any advice on the removal of the gearbox in the S2(will it come out without removing the engine and any other tips). Dont know what has went wrong but there is a knocking noise coming from "something" when in neutral and revving it up slightly. But when I put in the clutch the knocking stops. (Hoping it is the Relase Bearing But I will change the Clutch and pressure plate as well). Any thoughts.
RND

[dern]

I took the gearbox out of my old s3 which has the removable cross-member under the gearbox. You can find the pictures here...

www.cwork.nildram.co.uk/mark/cars/tvr/steveheath/

You may be able to get the gearbox out without removing the engine but frankly it looked impossible to me. Removing the engine really isn't that bad. The basic sequence of events are (from memory)...

- Lift car.
- Remove bonnet
- Remove exhaust (don't remove manfifolds)
- Remove ancillaries such as air filter
- Remove gearstick
- Disconnect fuel and clutch lines and loom connections
- Disconnect driveshaft from diff
- Loosen engine and gearbox mounts
- Support engine weight
- Remove bolts
- Lift engine slightly so it's suspended
- Get under car and move engine forward slightly to give clearance to slide drive shaft out
- Out comes the engine. I had to remove the dizzy to get clearance as I didn't want to remove the manifolds so if you do that scribe down the side to get it aligned when you put it back in.

This isn't supposed to be a guide on how to do it, simply a rough idea of what's involved. You'll obviously need a crane.

I got Newbury Transmissions to recondition my gearbox as the reason it came out was the synchro on 4th was knackered. I put a new clutch in at the same time.

Good luck,

Mark

>> Edited by dern on Monday 29th March 09:40

[rnd]

Thanks DERN for that but do you or anyone else know can I remove the box without taking out the engine as it seems alot of work just to get at the clutch.
HERES HOPING
rnd

[dern]

rnd said:

Thanks DERN for that but do you or anyone else know can I remove the box without taking out the engine as it seems alot of work just to get at the clutch.

When I asked around the general consensus was that (assuming it's possible to take out the transmission on your car from underneath - I reckon you really need a proper car lift and some tall transmission jacks) it's easier to take the engine out the front way. If you do manage to take it out of the bottom of the car there would be a lot of interested punters for any photos you could take of the procedure.

Where do you live by the way, if it's near me you can borrow my crane, if not they're not too expensive to rent. If you can rope in a mate you can have that engine out in less than a day with a decent tool set.

Good luck,

Mark

[rnd]

Brilliant Dern. Directions to my house are as follows
drive North to you get to The Ferries then take a boat to Ireland
(I will have "THE ULSTER FRY" ready for you and your mates). That's why I ask all these silly questions on the web site as as far as I am aware (within the TVRCC) over this side of the pond there is mine (well it's the wife's) S2 and 2 others so it's hard to get "teck talk" about the S
Ray

[M@H]

This may be of some use.. the box can sometimes come out without the engine and without cutting one of the chassis tubes (a "known" solution).. as was the case for Johno.

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=16292&f=11&h=0&

Cheers,
Matt

[dern]

rnd said:

Brilliant Dern. Directions to my house are as follows drive North to you get to The Ferries then take a boat to Ireland (I will have "THE ULSTER FRY" ready for you and your mates).

Ah, that may be difficult as we are expecting a baby in a week or so

rnd said:

That's why I ask all these silly questions on the web site as as far as I am aware (within the TVRCC) over this side of the pond there is mine (well it's the wife's) S2 and 2 others so it's hard to get "teck talk" about the S

I asked all the same one before I took the plunge as I hadn't attempted anything like this before.

BTW, I was 'mhibbins' from the thread mentioned below... looks like I was more optimistic about the possibility of it coming out but still unhappy about the amount of room I had

Regards,

Mark

>> Edited by dern on Monday 29th March 12:43

[rnd]

Hi DERN. This is the first time I have got a chance to reply to you again. have solved the problem of the knocking clutch. The "floating plate" that holds the Slave cylinder is rattling when I rev the car up (I am so relived) But I was intending to change the clutch and engine mountings anyway so I might attempt it this winter. When I was under it for the life of me I can't see how to loosen the engine mountings (even getting the spanner onto it looks impossible)Did you take off the mounting bracket that is on the block?

[dern]

rnd said:

Hi DERN. This is the first time I have got a chance to reply to you again. have solved the problem of the knocking clutch. The "floating plate" that holds the Slave cylinder is rattling when I rev the car up (I am so relived) But I was intending to change the clutch and engine mountings anyway so I might attempt it this winter. When I was under it for the life of me I can't see how to loosen the engine mountings (even getting the spanner onto it looks impossible)Did you take off the mounting bracket that is on the block?

I'm really glad you got it sorted without pulling the engine out.

With regard to the engine mounts, if you have a look at this picture...

www.cwork.nildram.co.uk/mark/cars/tvr/steveheath/IM000394.jpg

...you'll see that I didn't take the mounts off the block but undid the bolts holding the other side of the mount on to the chassis mounts. The nuts are a bit of a git to get to bit it is possible. You may have to buy an offset ring spanner to get to the nut. Keep a note of how many washers are used each side to get the engine level (you can see mine all in one pile on the battery tray where I failed to keep a note of how many were on each side).

The advantage of not taking them off the engine is that you can use them as the hoist lifting points. This works really well as the angle that the engine sits at in the above picture is it's natural hanging angle with the strap threaded straight up through the manifold as it sits normally in the car. I took the engine out with a mate (mostly giving encouragement than actual help but it still counted ) and got it back in by myself because that angle made it easier. As you have to thread the strap through the engine mount don't get too big a strap, mine were 2 ton straps which were totally over the top and I had to cut one end off the get it out of the mount.

The haynes manual for the granada says to strap the hoists around the manifolds... don't do that. They are strong enough to take the weight (if in good condition) but the forces on them will pull them together and you could end up with two of the manifold pipe very close together and may end up with them vibrating together while driving which is bloody annoying. I can only assume the manifolds in the granada are not routed so acutely forward, don't run so close together and you wouldn't have the problem of squeezing them together.

Let me know if I can be of any further help, email me through my profile as well as post on here as I don't come in here as often as I used to as I no longer have the s3.

Regards,

Mark

>> Edited by dern on Thursday 1st April 21:25

[rnd]

Cheers Mark
That will keep me going for a few nights during the winter.
Happy TVRing
ray

[mmickgoodall]

Hi
I would definitley take the engine and gearbox out together. they are easy to get out with the car raised and a good hoist. And its much easier to disconect and realigne the gearbox with the engine and box on the floor.
You would not belive how heavy a gearbox is when your lying on your back trying to line up the input shaft splines and slide it back in place.
Good luck Mick.