Ooof!

Transmissions are heavy! Can anybody come put this one back in for me?

stand back, im gonna do it with my mind!

One of my co-workers just changed the transmission on his Jeep. He came in all black and blue and cussing the next day.

Mr Obvious:

You need a transmission jack, Jack.

I have a floor jack, which is what I'm going to do. This is not the first (and probably won't be the last) one I've had to install solo on my garage floor. I just needed somebody to bitch about it to!

For what car? The Miata? You don't need a jack, you need some Wheaties!

doing it on the floor sucks. Ive done 2 on the ground in the past few weeks, a th350 and a 4l60e. Are you doing a 4r70?

The Miata.

I got the trans up, but I can't get it in /splines lined up. Trying to do this solo is a royal PITA.

Its easier if you set the trans on your chest. Wont really help with the bruises though.

MrJoshua wrote: Its easier if you set the trans on your chest. Wont really help with the bruises though.

Agreed. Last one I did i managed to slide it up onto my chest and pressed it up with arms and wiggled legs/knees to help stabilize it. Wasn't that aweful, I was surprised. Oh and it was the slightly heavier 6spd :) Oh and I'm 150lbs and outta shape.

Now back back... back into the garage.

Again, it's up, just not in. I have a jack supporting it.

The slight angle/altitude changes needed to make it slide in are often easier with it on your chest. Absolutely the best if you are North South with the car so your knees can help. The jack method is far less messy, so I understand if you want to stick with it.

The fun part is lowering one onto your chest on a creeper, then having somebody pull you out from under the car by your ankles.

ok, to all the 150 lb out of shape guys.. have fun with your miata transmissions, but that wont get you far in 90% of the repair world. Most rwd automatics and fwd transaxle automatics (the ones that break) are a lot closer to 150 lb than to 80. Go ahead and weigh your transmission.. the number will be a lot smaller than youd guess by lifting it that way. Doing it with the heavy ones is flat impossible.

Anyway, one thing you should do if you can is make sure the tranny is in gear (talking about manual miatas here) so that you can turn the output shaft of the tranny and therefore turn the input shaft to help with the spline alignment. I dont remember if the output on one of those has a flange on it but if not you can usually get some small vicegrips onto the small part of the shaft that sticks out past the seal. Then, when you can feel that you have the shaft touching the clutch hub but its not going in, you can turn the output while wiggling the tranny and it will usually line up and slide in.

Good luck!

I'll come by to drink your beer and watch/listen to you install that SOB. But that's about it.

alex wrote: The fun part is lowering one onto your chest on a creeper, then having somebody pull you out from under the car by your ankles.

LOL

The tool companies make these foam pads and sell them for around $30. You could scrounge something similar for under five bucks.

Makes dropping the tranny a breeze- I litterally let it drop and watch it bounce before pulling it out on the pad. Makes resting it on your chest relatively painless too when you're ready to bench press it back in. At least on a Miata. No way I'd try this with a TH350!

You can't turn the output shaft on a Miata transmission, it's recessed in the tail housing. You need the driveshaft, or a slip joint off of one. As far as spline alignment goes, I've had some luck working from the opposite end and turning the crank pulley with a ratchet.

Yes, that was the first Miata job I vowed never to do again(at least solo). Took a full 2-nights to finally get it back together. Iirc, jacking up the front of the engine slightly seemed to do the trick.

Replacing the top was the 2nd job I vowed to never do again on this car. But in comparison, the timing belt & everything related was a breeze.

Oh, and the 3rd job was installing the Racing Beat springs onto the AGX shocks. No spring compressor I've ever seen is small enough to slide back out of the compressed coils. I ended up with a redneck contraption built with the back frame of a junk mountain bike & some lumber, but it required me to lean over the top of the assembly while I threaded/tightened the nut. I really expected 1 of the 4 to come loose & take my jaw with it. And then I screwed up & had the front and rear springs swapped, so I had to do it twice.

Yet I still like this car...

all of my transmissions have been light. My Srod from the mustang is lighter than my trans out of my nissan pickup.

when i was 16, before i knew what a transmission jack was, i bench pressed the cast iron powerglide back into the belair by myself and had it supported on my knees as i started the bolts. that one was a heavy SOB.

Another reason to not own an auto-trans.

..and people do this for fun?

patgizz wrote: when i was 16, before i knew what a transmission jack was, i bench pressed the cast iron powerglide back into the belair by myself and had it supported on my knees as i started the bolts. that one was a heavy SOB.

I did the same thing with the TH350 from my dad's '79 Chevy truck when I was about that age. I'll bet the 'glide was a bit heavier...

I have benched a couple transmissions. I probably dropped and reinstalled the A4LD in the mustang at least 5 times....

Automatics suck!

The only things ive ever successfully done that on were the manual transaxles on a neon and a k-car. both weighed in the 80 lb region.

I might try with an a4ld since that is one of the lightest/smallest rwd autos there is.