I made progress on the T56 removal, but another problem

I removed all 6 bellhousing bolts from my t56, and all required accessories, pulled the fork etc. The tranny is extremely loose but I can't pull it off because its catching on the flywheel and tranny tunnel. Im starting to think its impossible to remove the T56 without unbolting the tranny from the bellhousing before you pull it. When I try unbolting the tranny from the bellhousing the whole tranny just spins :(

I fought for about an hour getting my buddys tranny back in. What we had to do was get the stock jack and jack up the front of the motor to tilt it back. Then it wont hit the tunnel.
(I put the jack under the crank pulley)

ok I removed my trans this past weekend. Lemme see if i can shed some light on this. In order to drop the trans you need to remove the trans from the bellhousing,and then remove the bellhousing from the block. When you are moving the trans from the bellhousing you will only be cable to pull it out 1 or 2 inches, this is becuase the fork which is scrweed onto the front of the trans with an (11mm bolt i think) is holding it on at the throwout berring, you should be able to wiggle it out. If you have the fork out and cannot remove the trans from the bellhousing then these are the only things bind it you could have missed:

1) The last bolt that is on top of the trans toward the passenger side, you need to lower the rear of the trans and take a 3 foot extention and get it (use 1/2 drive)
2) The drive shaft
3) The torque arm
4) The mount that holds the back of the trans to the exhaust pipe.
5) The Tranny Cross member w/ trans mount

Those are the only things still binding the trans to the car if you have the rest out. Check out this guide:

http://www.installuniversity.com/install_university/installu_pages/donations/mcleod_clutch_install.htm

Any help?

I didnt remove the trans from the bellhousing. I removed the bellhousing from the bloc.... The trans is literally just hanging there I can wiggle it around etc but the two ears on the top of the bellhousing and hitting the tunnel and its catching on the top of the flywheel too. I think the engine tilting back would help. If I try to unbolt the tranny from the bellhousing the tranny just twirls around on the flywheel, lol


BTW: The fork was released and nothing is connected.


Originally posted by NVetro
ok I removed my trans this past weekend. Lemme see if i can shed some light on this. In order to drop the trans you need to remove the trans from the bellhousing,and then remove the bellhousing from the block. When you are moving the trans from the bellhousing you will only be cable to pull it out 1 or 2 inches, this is becuase the fork which is scrweed onto the front of the trans with an (11mm bolt i think) is holding it on at the throwout berring, you should be able to wiggle it out. If you have the fork out and cannot remove the trans from the bellhousing then these are the only things bind it you could have missed:

1) The last bolt that is on top of the trans toward the passenger side, you need to lower the rear of the trans and take a 3 foot extention and get it (use 1/2 drive)
2) The drive shaft
3) The torque arm
4) The mount that holds the back of the trans to the exhaust pipe.
5) The Tranny Cross member w/ trans mount

Those are the only things still binding the trans to the car if you have the rest out. Check out this guide:

http://www.installuniversity.com/install_university/installu_pages/donations/mcleod_clutch_install.htm

Any help?

My brother did 3 clutch swaps a couple of weeks ago, 2 on his car and 1 on a friends. He unbolted the tranny from the bellhousing all 3 times. Only took 90 minutes to completely remove the tranny and the flywheel on each car.
Oh, and this was done on our driveway on jackstands, he did use my air tools though.

So you didnt remove the tranny to bellhousing bolts did you? I did automatic tranny's so I thought this would be fine but I guess there are some clearance issues with t56's and their flywheel.

Just got the tranny out, thanks. I had to tilt the engine back and that was it. I never removed the tranny from the bellhousing BTW.

dude, in the future, break the bolts loose on the bellhousing, get the 10 oclock bolt out and then romove the trans from the bellhousing. then remove the bellhousing from the block. best way..

it's a peice of cake once you unbolt the trans from the bellhousing!

I'm roughly at the same point Rodriguez was, but I could really use some advice on how to release the fork. The trans sits there and spins on the input shaft, but I can't release the fork.. I don't even know how. lol. I never thought about jacking up the front of the engine afterward to get it out.. I'll have to try that too. Any help on the fork would be appreciated though.

listen i did my clutch again last week, had it on the ground in 2 hours by myself. seperate the trans from the bellhousing if you haven't.

also for the fork, after taking the slave out and the spacer put the butt of your ratchet (or something like that) into the ball of the forkand knock it away from the input shaft, it's just a clip with light spring pressure holding it on.

ok, i cant get the fork to release from the input shaft.. Im literally banging on the fork with the butt of the ratchet, but the thing wont let go. Theres no small spring pressure here. Now, just to make sure were on the same road.. Its the arm sticking out from the middle of the clutch right? with the small dent in the shape of a ball right? and the clutch will stay in the bellhousing attached to the engine correct? I'm taking the trans off the bellhousing, the clutch will stay in, seeing as it was replaced just over a year ago. Any further help or additional pointers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

just pull the fork with your hand, not towards the back of the car, towards the drivers side and down. In a diagonal.

ya the clutch will stay on the motor.

yup diagonal, don't push in, the butt of the ratchet just helps you grip it more, do pull out toward you as well as down and to the left away from the input shaft. like i said sometimes you need to tap it some....
is the end of it hitting the alum housing yet or is there space still?

WOO HOO!!! T56 OWNED! lol. Thanks a lot for that little tip guys, i was going about the fork all wrong, i pulled on it and click, the trans dropped right onto the jack! oh man, thats such a relief to finally get somewhere.. now i just have to get it rebuilt and put back in.. lol. Umm, I did have another problem now though. Since the car has been sitting for a couple months now it hasnt been started, so right after the trans was out of the way, i went to start the car just to run it a little ya know? and when i pushed the clutch pedal i heard a CLICK! and now there is no resistance whatsoever in the pedal.. Did I majorly break something?! :confused: The car still starts and I can see the clutch spin (thats awesome), but theres just tons of freeplay.. any ideas? Thanks again for that last little tip though limige and the winner, truly appreciated. :)

omg, there's tons of free play because the slave cylinder you took off has nothing to push against! as long as the cylinder didn't blow it's seals and spew fluid then your alright. should be fine.

congrats on the progress, it's always easier the second time around;)

Originally posted by 13sectransam
WOO HOO!!! T56 OWNED! lol. Thanks a lot for that little tip guys, i was going about the fork all wrong, i pulled on it and click, the trans dropped right onto the jack! oh man, thats such a relief to finally get somewhere.. now i just have to get it rebuilt and put back in.. lol. Umm, I did have another problem now though. Since the car has been sitting for a couple months now it hasnt been started, so right after the trans was out of the way, i went to start the car just to run it a little ya know? and when i pushed the clutch pedal i heard a CLICK! and now there is no resistance whatsoever in the pedal.. Did I majorly break something?! :confused: The car still starts and I can see the clutch spin (thats awesome), but theres just tons of freeplay.. any ideas? Thanks again for that last little tip though limige and the winner, truly appreciated. :)

Are you sure that you are experienced enough to work on your tranny? You had trouble getting the fork off, and now you may have blown your slave cylinder with that stunt. I am not ragging on you, but imagine the trouble youre gonna have getting it back. It just seemed to me that maybe you shouldnt have tried a project like this. Good luck, and i would recommend getting someone with a little more time under the hood.

LoL, well that was obviously my first thought when i didnt have any resistance in the pedal, but at first it was extremely tough and wounldnt go down at all, then it clicked really loud and went down.. but i dont see any fluid so you're probably right... that just just scared me a little though :eek:... Thanks again for the extra tips :bow:

Originally posted by dynomight
Are you sure that you are experienced enough to work on your tranny? You had trouble getting the fork off, and now you may have blown your slave cylinder with that stunt. I am not ragging on you, but imagine the trouble youre gonna have getting it back. It just seemed to me that maybe you shouldnt have tried a project like this. Good luck, and i would recommend getting someone with a little more time under the hood.

If you're wondering, no im not rebuilding the transmission myself, I'm having a shop do it, but I'm saving some money by pulling it myself. And yes, this is the first transmission I've pulled out of any car and it took about 5 hours, but I think thats pretty good seeing as how I didn't know what I was doing going into it. Just took installuniversity.com's guide and went to work. Yeah the fork was kind of stupid on my part after the trans just let loose after I pulled it like that, but like I said, I've never done this before and I was doing it alone so I think I did pretty good considering the scenario.. The slave cylinder on the other hand.. :( I dont know yet..

Well good luck, common sense aint so common these days. I agree that you have to start somewhere, and now youve got one under your belt. Putting it in is another story. But patience is a virtue. I was just looking out, tranny removal isnt exactly remedial. And the slave, hope it goes okay. Even if it did pop, you can still get a slave system from gm. Not too bad. Again, good luck...

well somethings definitely wrong with the pedal because its way too loose, it feels like a snapped cable or something.. no fluid leaks though, so who knows. and yes from what I hear, putting the trans back in is more of a pain than taking it out.. I understand what you're saying about this being my first trans and all, but dont worry I'm not working at you're local GM dealer... yet :p

Missed this earlier. DOH! I'll move it to the Drivetrain forum now though... :)