Gearbox Removal

[Lewis's Friend]

Hi all

Just a quick one in case there are any special techniques to taking the gearbox out (sadly it is oozing oil from every gasket!).

Is it as straight forward as I'm imagining it to be, or should I be concerned? I will hopefully have an extra pair of hands to help, which will hopefully make things a bit easier.

Thanks as always...

[mep12345]

It's all n my site including the tricks for the prop shaft. www.gbsportscar.com and follow the links

Mark

[Lewis's Friend]

mep12345 said:

It's all n my site including the tricks for the prop shaft. www.gbsportscar.com and follow the links

Mark

Top man - much appreciated, thank you.

[phillpot]

Mark has it pretty well covered but there is one extra, very handy, little tip I picked up from this Forum...

Getting the g'box back in, past the crossmember brackets on the chassis, is a bit lot easier if you remove a little metal from the tailhousing ribs.







Some might argue that metal is there for a purpose and it will weaken the gearbox? Mine has had a bit of use since and hasn't self destructed.... yet

[Lewis's Friend]

phillpot said:

Mark has it pretty well covered but there is one extra, very handy, little tip I picked up from this Forum...

Getting the g'box back in, past the crossmember brackets on the chassis, is a bit lot easier if you remove a little metal from the tailhousing ribs.







Some might argue that metal is there for a purpose and it will weaken the gearbox? Mine has had a bit of use since and hasn't self destructed.... yet

Thanks for the tip. Although, I'm currently thinking I may do this over the winter and just top up the gearbox for now - I want to drive it while the weather allows!

[mep12345]

Lewis's Friend said:

Thanks for the tip. Although, I'm currently thinking I may do this over the winter and just top up the gearbox for now - I want to drive it while the weather allows!

It's probably doable in a day if you have help even without a post ramp. Biggest problem is getting engine and gearbox to align with those fins in place that Mike showed removed. If I still had mine and had to do it again I'd take them off too and then think I could easily do it on my own in a weekend on the garage floor. You need a very high lift jack though to get the box out from under the car as you have to clear the bell housing

Also change the flywheel spigot bearing and make up the tool mentioned on my site, they cost pence and are bound to fail if you put the box back without doing it

Mark

[SteveOS3]

Got the propshaft out following the instructions and thought I'd add a few notes:

2.9 S3, non cat.

After removing the diff' carrier bolts it still wouldn't drop far enough to get the proshaft flange past the carrier. It dropped about 2" at the front but was fouling on the chassis on the o/s and rear of the diff'.

I had to support the diff' on a jack then undo the 4 rear mounting bolts and lever the diff to the n/s to get clearance past the carrier.

Then it fouled on the handbrake cable which had to be released to get enough slack for wiggling around.

I found it easier to remove the top two gearbox bolts from the driver's side using loosening with a ring spanner and short scaffold pipe for leverage.then finishing with a flexi-head ratchet spanner. The bottom six bolts all came out from below with a standard socket and extension bar.

[phillpot]

SteveOS3 said:

After removing the diff' carrier bolts it still wouldn't drop far enough to get the proshaft flange past the carrier. It dropped about 2" at the front but was fouling on the chassis on the o/s and rear of the diff'.

I had to support the diff' on a jack then undo the 4 rear mounting bolts and lever the diff to the n/s to get clearance past the carrier.

Then it fouled on the handbrake cable which had to be released to get enough slack for wiggling around.

Don't recall having such a struggle with mine Once the two big bolts are out the nose drops and prop goes back far enough to drop out of the grearbox. Handbrake would have been off to turn prop to get at all four bolts.

As the saying goes "everyone is different" !

SteveOS3 said:

with a ring spanner and short scaffold pipe for leverage.

either they were silly tight or you need to work out

[SteveOS3]

The top four bolts all 'cracked' at first - I thought I'd snapped the ring on the spanner.

As far as the prop' dropping after the cradle bolts were removed; I'm 16 stone and was hanging off it before I realised that it was fouling on the chassis at the back of the diff' - the diff' is central but the o/s chassis rail is over 1" closer than the n/s, hence levering it to the n/s to get it drop more.

Just got to get a bit of help to drop the box now and I'm on the home stretch(hopefully)....