Transmission rebuild

[Roman D]

If you're not so far from brooklyn, i can borrow you some tools- long extentions for those bolts on the top of tranny, transmission plate adapter for jack, etc. If you decide to change rear seal, keep in mind that bolts holding a flywheel are 1 time use so order them as well, many others are too. Also toque wrench will be required due many bolts go in to aluminum alloy and over tight cold cause stripped tread, not enough- could also be the problem.. Strongest force is required for flywheel, 120Nm, i think, so you will need wrench that can go that far. Please be aware that there are 3 ways to measure that force Nm/footLb and another metric measurment. Please see your bentley manual - it has all the specs. I am telluling you this because I had to go back to SEARS to get a smaller wrench, i picked the beefiest one but as it turned out it could not measure some tights what required on the smaller side and quite frankly, doing acrobatic exercises under the car with large wrench would pose serious inconveniences

[skubasteve]

Thanks for all of the help folks, and the very generous offer to borrow tools. I work in Manhattan so not far from Brooklyn at all...I will keep it in mind in the future. For this particular job I am using some of the hoped-for savings to subsidize tool purchases. I'm using the Harbor Freight scissor-style trans jack and bought some ratchet extensions from there as well.

This morning I was able to almost complete the job. The trans is on the jack, and the bellhousing bolts are out (including the two upper bolts which are E10 heads; the rest are E12).

Everything looks good, except the transmission won't budge when I push it backwards. How much force should this require? Do I need to get in there with pry bars and whatnot?

[EH6TunerDaniel]

Did you remove the four bolts holding the torque converter to the flywheel/flex plate?

[Roman D]

When I did my clutch, I had some hard time with starter, it just did not want to let go, especially the pin.. Inspect everything, make sure that all screws removed, use wd-40, and dont be shy with it.. I did noy have to use a crow bar but descent size flat screw driver came handy.

[skubasteve]

I had not removed the four bolts from the torque converter, as the Bentley said to loosen them only. So I removed those and also removed a rogue bellhousing bolt that I had missed earlier (there are 12, for the record). Things went smoothly after that. The trans released easily. I then jacked the front of the car up until it cleared the trans, and used a rope to pull it out. I didn't want to get under the car while it was jacked up high; this method worked out well.

In the pic below, I've got the car back down on all four tires (the jack stand is sitting off to the side).

Thanks again for the help. Great forum.

[X53Jay4.8is]

Originally Posted by skubasteve

I had not removed the four bolts from the torque converter, as the Bentley said to loosen them only. So I removed those and also removed a rogue bellhousing bolt that I had missed earlier (there are 12, for the record). Things went smoothly after that. The trans released easily. I then jacked the front of the car up until it cleared the trans, and used a rope to pull it out. I didn't want to get under the car while it was jacked up high; this method worked out well.

In the pic below, I've got the car back down on all four tires (the jack stand is sitting off to the side).

Thanks again for the help. Great forum.

Skubasteve - please be careful jacking up on dirt. Don't let the X5 be the death of you.

[skubasteve]

Yep I'm using some Ipe wood, which is hard as a rock, under the jackstands. Now that the trans is out I'm going to reposition the car. It's current position is certainly not ideal.

[Roman D]

Sorry for being sarcastic, but wouldn't it be easier to reposition/position the car while transmission was still in it? Because now that will be literally you, not the engine doing the repositioning of a 2.5 ton vehicle...

[skubasteve]

Yep. By the time I realized it would be an issue, I had the exhaust off so didn't want to start it. Probably should have anyway.

[skubasteve]

I think I'm going to leave it where it is and put it on four of these:

Magnum-16000 Auto Ramp Set with Built-In Safety Chock