Well after a few helpful suggestions from Forum members, and a discussion with a transmission tech whom I trust, the news seems to be bad. Filter clogging with debris from a disintegrating clutch seems to be the situation. All the externals seem to be working right as it shifts and runs perfect for the minute and a half that it drives.

The posts I've read all talk about lowering the engine-trans assembly and removing it under the car. Is there a good reason for not just pulling the engine instead of working under the car? At 67, I'm not eager to horse around the transaxle under the car and I'm not afraid of pulling engines. TD

 

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Thats a 5 speed swap a guy did. Gives you an idea of what it would be to pull from underneath car. My opinion easier then pulling whole motor and transmission. Just drop out the side.

I had an engine support bar and used a transmission jack to support the transmission to make it easier to get out from the car.


But I am assuming you have an engine crane and engine stand and other proper tools to pull the engine out from the top.

 

If you are just going after the transmission then go out the bottom. Its really not a huge amount of work and can be done in a few hours. Of course being your first time will take probably double that unfortunately. Just a tip, leave the rear engine mount attached to the trans, its only mounted to the trans anyway. Some people just tip the sub frame to slide the trans out, I remove it completely, its just one more thing you have to work around.

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Thanks Boxpin. In fact I just got it out 2 days ago. It was pretty straight forward once an old guy gets his mind adjusted to "modern-day" processes. My twitter handle is @oldvolvoguy and I've never worked on a transverse engine before. Not bad, and I can't imagine not removing the subframe. Next decision is whether or not to have this trans rebuilt or do an exchange. Any thoughts? TD

 

You may just want to go grab another one from a JY, put it in and call it done. Make sure you pull it from a car that was hit, not one that looks fine because those are the ones that had engine/trans issues. Probably be less than $100.